THE  NEW  FOLIC 
OF  SOVIET  RUi 


THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


THE  NEW  ECONOMIC  POLICY  OF 
SOVIET  RUSSIA. 


THE  NEW  POLICIES 
OF    SOVIET   RUSSIA 


By 
LENIN:     BUKHARIN:     RUTGERS 


CHICAGO 

CHARLES  H.  KERR  &  COMPANY 

CO-OPERATIVE 


DK 


CONTENTS. 

FAOB 

The    Meaning    of    the    Agricultural 
Tax,  by  N.  Lenin  9 

The  New  Economic  Policy  of  Soviet 
Russia,  by  N.  Bukharin 4.') 

The   Intellectuals   and  the   Russian 
Revolution,  by  S.  J.  Rutgers 65 


iK/^MOOO 


THE  MEANING  OF  THE 
AGRICULTURAL  TAX. 


THE  MEANING  OF  THE  AGRICUL- 
TURAL TAX. 

BY    N.    LENIN, 

The  question  of  the  Agricultural  Tax  at  the 
present  moment  is  attracting  considerable  at- 
tention and  is  the  subject  of  considerable  dis- 
cussion. This  is  quite  understandable,  for  it 
is  indeed  one  of  the  most  important  questions 
of  policy  under  the  present  conditions. 

It  will  be  all  the  more  useful,  therefore,  to 
attempt  to  approach  this  question,  not  from 
its  "everyday  aspect,"  but  from  the  point  of 
view  of  principle;  in  other  words,  to  examine 
the  background  upon  which  we  are  sketching 
the  plan  of  the  definite,  practical  measures  of 
policy  of  the  present  day. 

In  order  to  make  this  attempt,  I  will  quote 
from  one  of  my  pamphlets  published  in  1918. 

The  polemic  is  now  unnecessary,  and  I  leave 
it  out,  but  I  retain  what  relates  to  the  discus- 
sion of  "State  Capitalism"  and  to  the  basic 
elements  of  the  economics  of  the  present 
period  of  transition  from  Capitalism  to  So- 
cialism. 


10  THE  NEW  POLICIES 

This  is  what  I  wrote: 

The  Present  Economic  Position  of  Russia 

"...  State  Capitalism  would  be  a  step 
in  advance  in  the  present  state  of  affairs  of 
our  Soviet  Republic.  If,  for  example,  State 
Capitalism  could  establish  itself  here  during 
the  next  six  months,  it  would  be  an  excellent 
thing  and  a  sure  guarantee  that  within  a  year 
Socialism  will  have  established  itself  and  be- 
come invincible." 

I  can  imagine  the  noble  indignation  with 
which  some  will  scorn  these  words.  What! 
The  transition  to  Capitalism  in  a  Soviet  So- 
cialist Republic  a  step  in  advance?  ...  Is 
thi^  not  a  betrayal  of  Socialism?  It  is  pre- 
cisely with  this  point  that  one  must  deal  in 
detail. 

There  is  not  a  single  person,  it  seems  to  me, 
who,  examining  the  economics  of  Russia, 
would  deny  their  transitional  character. 
There  is  not  a  Communist,  it  seems  to  me,  who 
would  deny  that  the  expression  Socialist  So- 
viet Republic  means  the  determination  of  the 
Soviet  Power  to  realize  the  transition  to  So- 
cialism, and  does  not  by  any  means  signify 
that  the  present  economic  order  is  regarded  as 


OF  SOVIET  RUSSIA  11 

Socialistic.  What  is  the  meaning  of  the  word 
— transition?  Does  it  mean,  when  applied  to 
economics,  that  in  the  present  system  there 
are  elements  "partly  capitalist  and  partly  So- 
cialist"? Everybody  will  realize  that  this  is  so. 
but  not  everybody  who  realizes  this  thinks  of 
the  numerous  kinds  of  elements,  of  the  vari- 
ous socio-economic  strata,  which  we  have  in 
Russia.  And  this  is  the  very  crux  of  the 
question. 

Let  us  enumerate  these  elements : 

1.  Patriarchal,  i.  e.,  to  a  large  degree  prim- 
itive, peasant  production. 

2.  Small  commodity  production.  (This 
includes  the  majority  of  peasants  who  sell 
grain.) 

3.  Private  Capitalism. 

4.  State  Capitalism. 

5.  Socialism. 

Russia  is  so  large  and  so  varied  that  all 
these  varying  types  of  socio-economic  strata 
are  iijterlayed  in  it.  The  peculiarity  of  the 
position  lies  precisely  in  this  fact. 

The  question  is,  which  is  the  predominating 
element?  It  is  clear  that  in  a  petty  peasant 
environment  nothing  but  petty  bourgeois  ideas 


18  THE  NEW  POLICIES 

can  prevail.  The  majority — and  the  vast  ma- 
jority at  that — of  the  peasants  are  small-com- 
modity producers.  Our  outer  shell  of  State 
Capitalism  (grain  monopoly,  control  of  manu- 
factures, merchants  and  bourgeois  co-opera- 
tive societies)  is  broken,  first  in  one  place  and 
then  in  another,  by  speculators,  and  the  chief 
article  of  speculation  is  grain. 

The  main  struggle  develops  precisely  in  this 
sphere.  Between  whom  is  this  struggle  con- 
ducted ?  Is  it  between  the  fourth  and  the  fifth 
elements  in  the  order  in  which  I  have  enum- 
erated them  above?  Certainly  not.  It  is  not 
a  struggle  between  State  Capitalism  and  So- 
cialism, but  a  struggle  of  the  petty  bour- 
geoisie plus  private  Capitalism  fighting  against 
State  Capitalism  and  Socialism.  The  petty 
bourgeoisie  resists  every  form  of  State  inter- 
ference and  control,  no  matter  whether  it  is 
State  Capitalism  or  State  Socialism.  This  is 
an  absolutely  indisputable  fact,  and  the  failure 
to  understand  it  lies  at  the  root  of  quite  a 
number  of  economic  errors. 

The  speculator  is  our  chief  enemy  from 
within,  and  works  against  every  form  of  So- 
viet economic  policy.     Even  if  it  was  excus- 


OF  SOVIET  RUSSIA  13 

able  for  the  French,  125  years  ago,  to  attempt 
to  rid  themselves  of  speculation  by  executing 
a  small  number  of  notorious  individuals,  we 
know  only  too  well  that  the  economic  cause  of 
speculation  lies  in  small  Capitalism  and  pri- 
vate industrial  enterprise,  and  that  every  tiny 
capitalist  is  an  agent  of  the  latter. 

We  know  that  the  million  tentacles  of  petty 
bourgeoisism  grasp,  in  many  places,  certain 
sections  of  the  workers  themselves. 

Those  who  do  not  see  this  reveal  by  their 
blindness  their  servitude  to  the  petty  bourgeois 
prejudices. 

State  Capitalism  is  incomparably  higher 
economically  than  our  present  economic  sys- 
tem— that  is  one  point ;  and  secondly,  there  is 
nothing  in  it  that  is  terrible  for  the  Soviet 
Government,  for  the  Soviet  State  is  a  State 
which  guarantees  power  to  the  workers  and 
the  poor. 

In  order  to  make  this  question  clear,  I  will, 
first  of  all,  quote  a  concrete  example  of  State 
Capitalism.  Everybody  will  know  this  ex- 
ample: Germany.  Here  we  have  "the  last 
word"  in  modern,  large  capitalist  technique 
and   systematic  organization   subordinated   to 


14  THE  NEW  POLICIES 

junker-bourgeois  imperialism.  In  place  of  the 
military,  junker,  bourgeois  imperialist  State 
put  another  State,  a  State  of  another  social 
type,  a  State  with  a  different  class  content,  a 
Soviet,  i.  e.,  a  proletarian  State,  and  you  will 
get  the  sum  of  conditions  which  gives  Social- 
ism. 

Socialism  is  impossible  without  large  capi- 
talist technique  constructed  according  to  the 
last  word  in  science,  without  systematic  State 
organization  subjecting  millions  of  people  to 
the  strict  observation  of  a  uniform  standard  of 
production  and  distribution  of  products.  We 
Marxists  have  always  said  this,  and  it  is  hard- 
ly worth  wasting  even  two  seconds  in  arguing 
this  point  with  people  who  do  not  understand 
it,  like  Anarchists  and  the  greater  part  of  the 
Social  Revolutionaries. 

Moreover,  Socialism  is  impossible  without 
the  domination  of  the  proletariat  in  the  State ; 
this  is  also  pure  ABC.  History  (which  no- 
body except  the  leading  Menshevik  dullards 
expected  would  smoothly,  peacefully,  simply 
and  easily  produce  "complete  Socialism")  has 
proceeded  in  such  a  peculiar  fashion  that,  in 
1918,  it  gave  birth  to  two  separated  halves  of 


OF  SOVIET  RUSSIA  15 

Socialism,  like  two  chickens  born  within  the 
same  shell  of  international  imperialism.  Ger- 
many and  Russia  in  1918  embodied  in  them- 
selves, on  the  one  hand  the  most  obviously 
materially  realized  economic,  industrial  and 
social  conditions,  and  on  the  other  hand  the 
political  conditions  for  Socialism, 

A  victorious  proletarian  revolution  in  Ger- 
many would  immediately  and  with  tremend- 
ous ease  smash  the  whole  shell  of  imperialism 
(unfortunately  constructed  of  the  finest  steel 
and  therefore  unbreakable  by  any  kind  of 
"chicken"),  and  would  for  certain  bring 
about  a  victory  of  world  Socialism  without, 
or  with  very  little,  difficulty,  granting  of 
course,  that  "difficult'  is  understood  not  in  a 
narrow  sense,  but  from  a  universal-historical 
point  of  view. 

If  the  revolution  in  Germany  is  delayed 
our  task  becomes  clear,  to  learn  State  Capital- 
ism from  the  Germans,  and  to  exert  all  our 
efforts  to  acquire  it.  We  must  not  spare  any 
dictatorial  methods  in  hastening  the  Wes- 
ternization of  barbarous  Russia,  and  stick  at 
no  barbarous  measures  to  combat  barbarism. 

At  the  present  moment  in  Russia  it  is  pre- 


16  THE  NEW  POLICIES 

cisely  petty  bourgeois  Capitalism  that  pre- 
dominates, from  which  a  single  riad,  through 
the  same  intervening  stations  called  national 
accounting  and  control  of  production  and  dis- 
tribution, leads  both  to  State  Capitalism  and 
to  Socialism.  Those  who  do  not  understand 
this  commit  an  unpardonable  error,  and  either 
do  not  see  facts,  cannot  look  beyond  the  sur- 
face, or  limit  themselves  to  the  abstract  con- 
tradictions between  Capitalism  and  Socialism, 
and  do  not  enter  into  the  concrete  forms  and 
stages  of  the  period  through  which  we  are 
now  passing. 

It  is  just  this  theoretical  mistake  which  has 
led  astray  the  best  members  of  the  Novaja 
Feisin  and  Vpered  groups,  while  the  worst 
and  centre  have  joined  the  rearguard  of  the 
bourgeoisie.  Even  the  best  of  them  did  not 
comprehend  what  Socialist  teachers  have  again 
and  again  pointed  out ;  the  "long  birth^travail" 
of  the  new  society,  which,  in  its  turn,  would 
at  first  be  only  an  abstraction,  and  would  only 
come  into  the  fulness  of  life  after  many  and 
various  practical  attempts  to  set  up  this  or 
that  form  of  Socialist  Government  had  been 
made. 


OF  SOVIET  RUSSIA  17 

It  is  precisely  because  it  is  impossible  to  ad- 
vance from  the  present  economic  position  of 
Russia  without  passing  through  zuhat  is  com- 
mon to  both  State  Capitalism  and  Socialism — 
national  accounting  and  control — that  to 
frighten  others  and  oneself  by  talking  about 
'evolving  towards  State  Capitalism"  is  ab- 
solute theoretical  stupidity.  It  means  to  allow 
one's  mind  to  stray  from  the  actual  path  of 
evolution.  In  practice  this  is  equal  to  drag- 
ging us  back  to  small  private  Capitalism. 

In  order  to  convince  the  reader  that  my 
'"high"  valuation  of  State  Capitalism  is  not 
made  here  for  the  first  time,  but  was  made  by 
me  previous  to  the  Bolsheviks  taking  power, 
I  will  quote  the  following  frohi  my  pamphlet, 
A  Threatening  Catastrophe  and  How  to  Com- 
bat It,  which  was  written  in  September,  1917 : 

"In  place  of  a  junker  capitalist  Government, 
try  and  put  a  revolutionary  democratic  Gov- 
ernment, i.  e.,  a  Government  that  will  in  a  re- 
volutionary manner  destroy  all  privileges  and 
not  fear  to  employ  revolutionary  methods  in 
order  to  realize  the  most  complete  democracy. 
You  will  then  see  that  State  Monopolist  Capi- 
talism  under  a   really   revolutionary  govern- 


18  THE  NEW  POLICIES 

ment  will  inevitably  mean  a  step  towards  So- 
cialism. 

"...  For  Socialism  is  nothing  else  than 
an  immediate  step  forward  from  State  capi- 
talist monopoly. 

"...  State  Monopolist  Capitalism  is  the 
most  complete  material  preparation  for  So- 
cialism, it  is  the  'porch'  to  it;  it  is  one  of  the 
steps  in  the  ladder  of  history  between  which 
and  the  step  called  Socialism  there  is  no  in- 
tervening step"  (pp.  27-38). 

The  reader  will  observe  that  this  was  writ- 
ten in  the  period  of  Kerensky,  that  I  speak 
here  not  of  the  dictatorship  of  the  proletariat, 
not  of  a  SociaHst  State,  but  of  "revolutionary 
democracy."  Surely  it  is  clear,  therefore,  that 
the  higher  we  raise  ourselves  on  this  political 
step,  the  nearer  do  we  approach  to  a  Soviet 
Socialist  State  and  to  the  dictatorship  of  the 
proletariat,  and  the  less  imperative  is  it  for  us 
to  fear  "State  Socialism."  Surely  it  is  clear 
that  in  the  material,  economic,  industrial  sense, 
we  have  not  yet  reached  the  "porch"  of  Social- 
ism, and  there  is  no  other  way  of  entering 
Socialism  except  through  this  as  yet  unreached 
"porch." 


OF  SOVIET  RUSSIA  19 

There  is  a  great  outcry  from  the  Left  Social 
Revolutionaries  against  the  so-called  policy  of 
"compromise"  of  the  "Right-Wing  Bolshe- 
viks." These  men  do  not  know  how  to  inter- 
pret the  history  and  evolution  of  the  revolu- 
tionary movement  and  what  it  has  to  teach  us 
in  these  matters;  they  do  not  clearly  under- 
stand what  it  is  exactly  that  is  prejudicial  in 
any  policy  of  compromise. 

Kerensky's  policy  of  compromise  meant 
handing  over  the  administrative  power  to  the 
imperialistic  bourgeoisie,  and  the  problem  of 
power  is  the  root  problem  of  all  revolutions. 
Now  that  the  Government  is  firmly  in  the 
hands  of  one  party — the  Proletarian  Party — 
to  speak  of  compromise,  when  there  can  be  no 
question  of  sharing  power  or  going  back  upon 
the  dictatorship  of  the  proletariat  in  favor  of 
the  bourgeoisie,  is  the  mere  empty  repetition 
of  senseless  parrot-cries.  To  designate  our 
policy  as  "a  compromise  with  the  bourgeoisie" 
when  we,  as  the  Government  of  the  State,  are 
endeavoring  to  obtain  in  our  employ  the  most 
highly  educated  elements  of  the  capitalist 
regime,  to  help  us  against  the  threatening 
chaos   of   small   ownership,   shows   an   entire 


20  THE  NEV/  POLICIES 

ignorance  of   the   Socialist  policy   of   recon- 
struction. 

In  the  above-quoted  arguments  of  1918, 
there  are  a  number  of  errors  in  connection 
with  periods.  Periods  prove  to  be  much 
longer  than  was  then  assumed.  This  is  not 
to  be  wondered  at,  but  the  basic  elements  of 
our  economic  life  have  remained  as  they  were 
then.  The  peasant  "poor"  (proletariat  and 
semi-proletarians)  in  large  numbers  have  be- 
come converted  into  middle-class  peasants. 
Out  of  this  the  small  private  ownership  and 
petty  bourgeois  movements  have  increased; 
meanwhile,  the  civil  war  of  1919-1920  ex- 
tremely intensified  the  ruin  of  the  country  and 
retarded  the  re-establishment  of  its  productive 
forces.  To  this  must  be  added  the  bad  harvest 
of  1920,  the  lack  of  fodder,  and  the  death 
rate  among  cattle,  which  still  further  retard- 
ed the  re-establishment  of  transport  and  in- 
dustry in  that  the  transport  of  our  chief  kind 
of  fuel,  wood,  was  carried  on  by  the  peasants' 
horses.  As  a  result  conditions  in  the  spring 
of  1921  were  such  that  it  was  absolutely  es- 
sential to  adopt  the  most  determined  excep- 
tional measures  for  the  improvement  of  the 


OF  SOVIET  RUSSIA  21 

conditions  of  the  peasantry  and  for  raising  its 
productivity. 

Why  improve  the  conditions  of  the  peasan- 
try and  not  those  of  the  workers? 

Because  for  the  improvement  of  the  position 
of  the  workers  it  is  necessary  to  have  bread 
and  fuel.  The  "holdup"  which  exists  at  the 
present  movement  in  national  industry  in  the 
largest  measure  is  due  to  this,  and  there  is  no 
other  means  of  increasing  productivity,  of  in- 
creasing the  stocks  of  grain  and  fuel,  except 
by  improving  the  position  of  the  peasantry  and 
increasing  its  productivity.  It  is  necessary  to 
commence  with  the  peasantry.  He  who  does 
npt  understand  this,  he  who  is  inclined  to  re- 
gard this  as  showing  preference  to  the  peas- 
antry, and  a  "departure"  of  the  same  kind  as 
a  departure  on  our  part  from  the  dictatorship 
of  the  proletariat  would  be,  has  simply  failed 
to  study  the  subject,  and  simply  gives  himself 
up  to  phrase-mongering. 

Thus,  the  first  thing  that  is  necessary  is  im- 
mediate and  serious  measures  for  raising  the 
productive  power  of  the  peasantry.  This  is 
impossible,  without  seriously  altering  our  food 
policy;    and    the    substitution    of    the    food 


22  THE  NEW  POLICIES 

requisitions  by  an  agricultural  tax,  connected 
with  at  least  Free  local  Trade  after  the  tax 
has  been  paid,  is  such  an  alteration. 

What  is  the  essence  of  the  substitution  of 
the  requisition  by  the  Agricultural  Tax? 

The  Agricultural  Tax  is  a  form  of  transition 
from  the  peculiar  "military  Communism" 
made  necessary  by  extreme  necessity,  ruin  and 
war,  for  the  purpose  of  a  proper  Socialistic 
exchange  of  products.  "Military  Commun- 
ism" in  its  turn  is  one  of  the  forms  of  the 
transition  from  Socialism,  with  peculiarities 
created  by  the  predominance  of  a  small  peas- 
antry in  the  population,  to  Communism. 

The  peculiarity  of  "military  Convnunism" 
lay  in  that  we  actually  took  from  the  peasantry 
his  surplus  of  produce  and  sometimes  a  part 
of  that  which  was  absolutely  necessary  for 
himself,  for  the  purpose  of  maintaining  the 
army  and  the  workers.  Mostly  we  took  the 
produce  on  loan  for  paper  money.  There  was 
no  other  way  by  which  we  could  defeat  the 
landlord  and  capitalist  in  a  ruined  small- 
peasant  country.  The  fact  that  we  came  out 
victorious  (in  spite  of  the  support  given  to 
our  exploiters  by  the  most  powerful  States  in 


OF  SOVIET  RUSSIA  23 

the  world)  proves  something  more  than  the 
wonderful  heroism  which  the  workers 
and  peasants  are  able  to  reveal  for  the 
the  sake  of  their  emancipation.  It  proves  also 
what  lackeys  of  the  bourgeoisie  were  the 
Mensheviks,  the  Social  Revolutionists,  the 
Kautsky  and  Co.,  when  they  blamed  us  for 
this  "military  Communism."  This  indeed 
should  be  placed  to  our  credit. 

It  is  not  less  necessary,  however,  to  know 
the  real  extent  of  the  service  which  we  ren- 
dered by  establishing  "military  Communism." 
"Military  Communism"  was  made  necessary 
by  the  war  and  the  state  of  ruin.  It  did  not 
and  could  not  meet  the  problems  of  proletar- 
ian policy.  It  was  a  temporary  measure.  The 
correct  policy  of  the  proletariat  when  carry- 
ing out  its  dictatorship  in  a  small-peasant 
country  is  to  exchange  for  grain  the  products 
of  industry  which  are  necessary  to  the  peas- 
antry. Only  such  a  policy  can  satisfy  the  re- 
quirements of  the  proletariat ;  only  such  a 
policy  can  strengthen  the  foundation  of  Com- 
munism and  lead  to  its  complete  victory. 

The  Agricultural  Tax  is  a  transition  to  this 
policy.    We  are  still  in  that  state  of  ruin,  still 


24  THE  NEW  POLICIES 

crushed  by  the  burden  of  war  (which  raged 
yesterday  and  which,  owing  to  the  greed  and 
anger  of  the  capitahst,  may  break  out  again 
to-morrow),  and  we  cannot  give  to  the  peas- 
ant sufficient  products  of  industry  in  exchange 
for  all  the  grain  we  need.  Knowing  this,  we 
introduce  the  Agricultural  Tax,  that  is,  we 
take  the  minimum  quantity  of  grain  necessary 
for  the  arming  of  the  workers,  in  the  form 
of  a  tax,  and  the  remainder  we  will  exchange 
for  the  products  of  industry. 

In  this  connection  we  must  also  bear  in  mind 
that  our  poverty  and  ruin  is  such  that  we  can- 
not immediately  establish  large  State  Socialist 
Factory  Production.  For  this  purpose  it  is 
necessary  to  have  large  stocks  of  grain  and 
fuel  in  the  great  industrial  centres,  and  to 
replace  the  worn-out  machinery  by  new  ma- 
chinery. Experience  has  convinced  us  that 
this  cannot  be  done  all  at  once,  and  we  know 
that  after  the  destruction  caused  by  the  im- 
perialist war,  even  the  richest  and  most  ad- 
vanced countries  can  solve  this  problem  only 
during  the  course  of  a  rather  long  period  of 
time.  This  means  that  it  is  necessary  to  a  cer- 
tain extent  to  assist  the  re-establishment  of 


OF  SOVIET  RUSSIA  25 

small  industry,  which  does  not  require  ma- 
chinery, which  does  not  require  large  Govern- 
ment stocks  of  raw  material,  fuel  and  food, 
and  which  can  immediately  give  certain  as- 
sistance to  agriculture  and  raise  its  produc- 
tivity. 

What  is  the  result  of  all  this?  Funda- 
mentally, we  get  a  certain  amount  (if  only 
local)  of  Free  Trade,  a  revival  of  the  petty 
bourgeoisie  and  Capitalism.  This  is  un- 
doubted, and  to  close  one's  eyes  to  it  would  be 
ridiculous. 

We  are  asked — is  this  necessary?  Can  this 
be  justified?    Is  it  not  dangerous? 

These  question  are  asked  by  many,  and  in 
most  cases  they  only  reveal  the  naivete  (ex- 
pressing oneself  politely)  of  those  who  ask 
them. 

Refer  to  the  manner  in  which  in  May,  1918, 
I  defined  the  economic  elements  (component 
parts)  of  the  various  socio-economic  strata. 
It  is  impossible  to  dispute  the  existence  of 
these  fiye  rungs  or  component  parts  of  these 
five  strata,  from  the  patriarchal  and  the  semi- 
primitive.  It  is  most  evident  that  in  a  small- 
peasant  country  the  small-peasant  strata,  that 


26  THE  NEW  POLICIES 

is,  the  partly  patriarchal  and  partly  petty  bour- 
geois, will  predominate.  The  development  of 
small  industry  when  we  have  exchange,  means 
the  development  of  petty-bourgeois  capitalist 
industry.  This  is  an  indisputable  truth,  an 
elementary  truth  of  political  economy,  con- 
firmed by  the  everyday  experience  and  obser- 
vation of  even  the  ordinary  man  in  the  street. 

What  policy  can  the  Socialist  proletariat 
conduct  in  the  face  of  such  economic  circum- 
stances? The  most  desirable  and  most  "cor- 
rect" policy  would  be  to  give  the  small  peasant 
all  the  products  of  industry  of  the  large  So- 
cialist factories  that  the  peasant  requires,  in 
exchange  for  his  grain  and  raw  materials. 
This  is  what  we  have  commenced  to  do,  but 
we  are  far  from  being  able  to  give  all  the 
necessary  products,  and  we  shall  not  be  able 
to  do  this  for  a  long  time,  at  least  until  we 
have  finished  the  work  of  electrifying  the 
country. 

What,  then,  is  left  for  us  to  do?  We  can 
either  completely  prohibit  and  prevent  the  de- 
velopment of  private  non-State  exchange,  i.  e.. 
commerce,  i.  e..  Capitalism,  which  is  inevitable 
with  the  existence  of  millions  of  small  pro- 


OF  SOVIET  RUSSIA  27 

ducers.  Such  a  policy  would  be  stupid  and 
suicidal  for  the  party  which  attempted  to  carry 
it  out.  It  would  be  stupid  because  it  is  eco- 
nomically impossible.  It  would  be  suicidal  be- 
cause the  party  that  attempted  to  carry  it  out 
would  inevitably  collapse.  It  is  useless  trying 
to  conceal  the  sin  which  some  Communists 
"in  thought,  in  word,  and  in  deed"  have  fallen 
into  on  this  policy.  We  will  attempt  to  rectify 
this  error.  It  is  essential  that  we  rectify  this 
error  or  else  it  will  go  hard  with  us. 

Or  (and  this  is  the  only  possible  and  sensi- 
ble policy)  we  can  refrain  from  prohibiting 
and  preventing  the  development  of  Capitalism 
and  strive  to  direct  it  in  the  path  of  State 
Capitalism.  This  is  economically  possible,  for 
State  Capitalism  exists  in  one  or  another  form 
and  to  one  or  another  extent  everywhere 
where  there  are  elements  of  Free  Trade  and 
Capitalism  in  general. 

Is  it  possible  to  combine  and  to  have  side  by 
side  a  Soviet  State,  the  dictatorship  of  the 
proletariat  and  State  Capitalism? 

The  whole  question,  theoretically  and  prac- 
tically, lies  in  finding  the  correct  means  of 
properly  guiding  the  inevitable   (to  a  certain 


28  THE  NEW  POLICIES 

extent  and  for  a  certain  time)  development  of 
Capitalism  along  the  path  of  State  Capitalism, 
and  what  conditions  to  establish  and  how  to 
secure  in  the  near  future  the  conversion  of 
State  Capitalism  into  Socialism. 

In  order  to  approach  a  solution  of  this  ques- 
tion, it  is  necessary  to  have  as  clear  an  idea  as 
possible  as  to  what  State  Capitalism  will  rep- 
resent in  practice  within  our  Soviet  system, 
within  the  framework  of  our  Soviet  State. 

One  of  the  simplest  cases  or  examples  of 
how  the  Soviet  Goverment  guides  the  de- 
velopment of  Capitalism  along  the  path  of 
State  Capitalism,  of  how  it  "plants"  State 
Capitalism,  is  concessions.  Everybody  now 
agrees  that  concessions  are  necessary,  but  not 
everybody  fully  appreciate  the  significance  of 
concessions.  What  are  concessions  in  a  Soviet 
system  from  the  point  of  view  of  socio- 
economic strata  and  their  inter-relations? 
They  are  a  treaty,  a  block  and  alliance  of  the 
Soviet,  i.  e.,  the  proletarian,  State  with  State 
Capitalism,  against  small  private  ownership 
(patriarchal  and  petty  bourgeois).  A  con- 
cessionnaire  is  a  capitalist.  He  conducts 
capitalist  business  for  the  sake  of  profits.    He 


OF  SOVIET  RUSSIA  29 

agrees  to  make  a  treaty  with  a  proletarian  gov- 
ernment in  order  to  receive  extra  profits,  or 
for  the  sake  of  securing  such  raw  materials 
as  he  otherwise  would  not  be  able,  or  would 
find  it  very  difficult,  to  secure.  The  Soviet 
Government  secures  the  advantage  in  the  form 
of  the  development  of  productive  forces,  and 
an  increase  in  the  quantity  of  products  avail- 
able immediately  or  within  a  short  period. 
We  have,  say,  hundreds  of  enterprises,  mines, 
forests,  etc. ;  we  cannot  develop  them  all,  we 
have  not  enough  machinery,  food,  or  trans- 
port. For  the  same  reasons  we  will  develop 
badly  the  remaining  sections.  As  a  conse- 
quence of  the  bad  or  insufficient  development 
of  large  undertakings  we  get  the  strengthening 
of  this  small  private  ownership  movement 
with  all  its  consequences:  the  deterioration  of 
suburban  (and  later  of  all)  agriculture,  frit- 
tering away  of  its  productive  forces,  decline 
of  confidence  in  the  Soviet  Government, 
peculation,  and  mass  and  petty  (the  most  dan- 
gerous)  speculation. 

In  "planting"  State  Capitalism  in  the  form 
of  concessions,  the  Soviet  Government 
strengthens    large    production    against    small 


30  THE  NEW  POLICIES 

production,  the  advanced  against  the  backward, 
machine  production  against  hand  production, 
it  increases  the  quantity  of  products  of  large 
industry  in  its  hands  and  strengthens  the  State 
regulation  of  economic  relations  as  a  counter- 
balance to  the  petty  bourgeois  anarchic  rela- 
tions. The  moderate  and  cautious  introduc- 
tion of  a  policy  of  concessions  (to  a  certain 
and  not  very  great  extent)  will  rapidly  improve 
the  state  of  industry  and  the  position  of  the 
workers  and  peasants — of  course,  at  the  price 
of  a  certain  sacrifice,  the  surrender  to  the 
capitalists  of  tens  of  millions  of  poods  of  most 
valuable  products.  The  definition  of  the  ex- 
tent and  the  conditions  under  which  conces- 
sions are  advantageous  to  us  and  not  danger- 
ous for  us,  depends  upon  the  relation  of  forces, 
is  determined  by  struggle,  for  concessions  are 
also  a  form  of  struggle,  a  continuation  of  a 
class  struggle  of  another  form,  and  under  no 
circumstances  a  substitution  of  the  class  war 
by  class  peace.  Practice  will  show  what  the 
methods  of  this  struggle  are  to  be. 

State  Capitalism  in  the  form  of  concessions 
in  comparison  with  other  forms  of  State  Capi- 
talism within  a  Soviet  system,  is  the  most  sim- 


OF  SOVIET  RUSSIA  31 

pie,  the  clearest,  and  the  most  clear-cut.    We 
have  here  a  direct  formal  written  treaty  with 
the  most  cultured,  most  advanced  West  Euro- 
pean countries.    We  know  exactly  our  losses 
and  our  gains,  our  rights  and  obligations.  We 
know  exactly  the  date  on  which  we  give  the 
concessions  and  know  the  conditions  of  buying 
out  on  the  expiration  of  a  concession,  if  there 
is  such  a  buying-out  clause  in  the  treaty.   We 
pay  a  certain  "tribute"  to  world  Capitahsm, 
we  as  it  were  "buy  out"  certain  relations  and 
receive  immediately  a  definite  measure  of  con- 
solidation of  the  position  of  the  Soviet  Gov- 
ernment, and  an  improvement  in  the  condi- 
tions of  our  industry.     The  difficulty  in  con- 
nection with  concessions  is  to  think  out  and 
weigh  up  things  in  concluding  a  concessions 
treaty,  and  later  to  watch  the  carrying  out  of 
the  treaty.    No  doubt  there  are  many  difficul- 
ties, and  in  all  probability  mistakes  will  at  first 
be  made,  but  such  difficulties  are  the  smallest 
things  in  comparison  with  the  other  tasks  of 
the  social  revolution,  and  particularly  in  com- 
parison with  other  forms  of  development,  the 
introduction,  the  planting  of  State  Capitalism. 
The  most  important  task  of  all  party  and 


33  THE  NEW  POLICIES 

Soviet  workers  in  connection  with  the  intro- 
duction of  the  agricultural  tax  is  to  adapt  the 
principle  that  is  at  the  basis  of  "concessions," 
to  apply  a  policy  similar  to  the  concession  or 
State  capitalist  policy,  to  the  remaining  form 
of  Capitalism — local  Free  Trade. 

Take  the  co-operative  societies.  It  was  not 
for  nothing  that  the  decree  on  the  Agricultural 
Tax  immediately  led  to  a  revision  of  the  laws 
on  co-operatives  and  a  certain  extension  of 
their  "freedom"  and  their  rights.  Co-opera- 
tion is  also  a  form  of  State  Capitalism,  but 
less  simple  and  clear  cut,  more  complicated 
and  therefore  creating  many  practical  diffi- 
culties for  our  Government.  The  co-opera- 
tion of  small  commodity  producers  (it  is  of 
these  and  of  workers'  co-operatives,  as  the 
predominant  and  typical  form  in  a  small  peas- 
ant country,  that  we  speak)  will  inevitably 
generate  petty  bourgeois  capitalist  relations, 
facilitate  their  development,  and  will  bring  the 
greatest  advantage  to  the  capitalist.  Things 
cannot  be  otherwise  in  the  face  of  the  predom- 
inance of  small  producers,  and  the  possibility 
as  well  as  the  necessity  for  exchange.  The 
freedom  and  right  of  co-operation  under  the 


OF  SOVIET  RUSSIA  33 

present  conditions  in  Russia,  means  the  free- 
dom and  rights  of  Capitahsm.  To  close  one's 
eyes  to  this  obvious  truth  will  be  stupid  or 
criminal. 

But  "co-operative"  Capitalism  in  distinction 
from  private  Capitalism  under  a  Soviet  Gov- 
ernment is  another  aspect  of  State  Capitalism, 
and  in  that  capacity  it  is,  of  course,  to  a  cer- 
tain extent,  useful  and  advantageous  to  us. 
In  so  far  as  the  Agricultural  Tax  signifies  the 
freedom  to  sell  the  remainder  of  produce 
(not  taken  as  tax),  it  is  necessary  to  exert  all 
our  efforts  to  direct  this  development  of 
Capitalism — for  freedom  of  trade  is  the  de- 
velopment of  Capitalism — along  the  path  of 
co-operative  Capitalism.  Co-operative  Capi- 
talism is  like  State  Capitalism  in  that  it  sim- 
plifies control,  observation,  and  the  mainten- 
ance of  treaty  relations  between  the  State  (the 
Soviet  in  this  instance)  and  the  capitalists. 
Co-operation  as  a  form  of  trade  is  more  ad- 
vantageous and  useful  than  private  trade,  not 
only  for  the  reasons  already  indicated,  but  also 
because  it  facilitates  the  organization  of  mil- 
lions of  the  population  and  later  the  whole  of 
the  population.  This  in  its  turn  is  a  tremendous 


34  THE  NEW  POLICIES 

gain  from  the  point  of  view  of  a  further  tran- 
sition from  State  CapitaHsm  to  Socialism. 

Let  us  compare  concessions  with  co-opera- 
tion as  a  form  of  State  Capitalism.     Conces- 
sions are  based  on  large    machine    industry, 
whereas  co-operation  is  based  on  small  and 
partly  even  patriarchal  industry.     A  conces- 
sion is  granted  to  a  single  capitalist  or  a  single 
firm,  a  syndicate,  a  cartel  or  a  trust.    A  co- 
operative society   embraces  many  thousands, 
even  millions,  of  small  masters.    A  concession 
permits  of  and  even  pre-supposes  a  definite 
treaty  for  a  definite  term,  whereas  a  co-opera- 
tive society  does  not  permit  of  definite  agree- 
ments or  definite  terms.    It  is  easier  to  repeal 
a  law  on  co-operative  societies  than  to  break  a 
concession  agreement;  for  the  breaking  of  a 
concession  agreement  immediately  means  the 
breaking  off  of  economic  relations,  of  the  alli- 
ance or  economic  "cohabitation"  with  Capital- 
ism ;  whereas  the  repeal  of  a  law  on  co-opera- 
tion, or  the  repeal  of  any  law  for  that  matter, 
not  only  does  not  break  off  the  actual  "cohabi- 
tation" of  the   Soviet  Government  with  the 
small  capitalists,  but  cannot  affect  economic 
relations  in  general.     It  is  easy  to  "keep  an 


OF  SOVIET  RUSSIA  35 

eye  on  "the  concessionnaire,  but  it  is  difficult 
to  do  so  on  the  co-operator.  The  transition 
from  concessions  to  Socialism  is  the  transition 
from  one  form  of  large  production  to  an- 
other. The  transition  from  the  co-operation 
of  small  masters  to  Socialism  is  a  transition 
from  small  production  to  large  production, 
i.  e.,  to  a  more  complicated  form  of  produc- 
tion. The  latter  has  this  compensating  fea- 
ture, however,  that  in  the  event  of  a  success- 
ful transition,  it  is  capable  of  tearing  out  a 
far  deeper  and  more  vital  root  of  the  old  pre- 
Sacialist  and  even  pre-capitalist  relations,  of 
that  which  puts  up  the  most  stubborn  resis- 
tance to  all  kinds  of  "innovations."  The 
policy  of  concessions  in  the  event  of  success 
will  give  us  a  few  exemplary — in  comparison 
with  our  own — large  undertakings,  standing 
on  a  level  with  modern  advanced  Capitalism ; 
in  a  few  decades  these  undertakings  will  come 
entirely  into  our  possession.  The  policy  of 
co-operation  in  the  event  of  success  will  raise 
small  industry  and  facilitate,  in  an  indefinite 
period,  its  transition  to  large  production  on 
the  basis  of  voluntary  combination. 

Let  us  take  a  third  form  of  State  Capital- 


36  THE  NEW  POLICIES 

ism.  The  State  invites  the  capitalist  as  a  mer- 
chant and  pays  him  a  definite  commission  for 
selling  State  products  and  for  buying  the  pro- 
ducts of  small  industry.  There  is  a  fourth 
form :  the  State  leases  a  factory  or  an  industry 
or  a  section  of  forest  or  land  to  a  capitalist; 
in  this  case,  the  lease  agreement  is  more  like  a 
concession  agreement.  The  question  is  whether 
we  can  recognize  these  types  of  Capitalism? 
In  order  to  answer  the  question  we  must  re- 
member the  component  parts  of  all,  without 
exception,  of  those  various  strata  of  society 
which  I  enumerated  in  my  article  of  May  5, 
1918.  "We,"  the  vanguard,  the  advanced  de- 
tachment of  the  proletariat,  are  passing  direct- 
ly to  Socialism,  but  the  forward  detachments 
are  only  a  small  section  of  the  proletariat, 
which,  in  its  turn,  is  only  a  small  section  of  the 
whole  mass  of  the  population.  In  order  that 
"we"  may  successfully  solve  the  problem  of 
our  direct  transition  to  Socialism,  we  must 
understand  what  indirect  paths  and  methods 
we  must  adopt  for  the  transition  of  pre- 
capitalist  relations  to  Socialism.  This  is  the 
crux  of  the  question. 

Is  it  possible  to  realize  the  direct  transition 


OF  SOVIET  RUSSIA  37 

of  this  state  of  pre-capitalist  relations  prevail- 
ing in  Russia  to  Socialism?  Yes,  it  is  possible 
to  a  certain  degree,  but  only  on  one  condition, 
which  we  know,  thanks  to  the  completion  of  a 
tremendous  scientific  labor.  That  condition  is : 
electrification.  But  we  know  very  well  that 
this  "one"  condition  demands  at  least  tens  of 
years  of  work,  and  we  can  only  reduce  this 
period  by  a  victory  of  the  proletarian  revolu- 
tion in  such  countries  as  England,  Germany, 
and  America. 

For  the  years  immediately  ahead  of  us,  we 
shall  have  to  think  of  indirect  links  capable  of 
facilitating  the  transition  of  patriarchism  and 
small  industry  to  Socialism.  "We"  are  still 
too  fond  of  saying  "Capitalism  is  an  evil,  So- 
cialism is  a  blessing,"  but  such  an  argument  is 
incorrect,  because  it  leaves  out  of  considera- 
tion all  the  existing  social  economic  strata, 
and  takes  in  only  two  of  them. 

Capitalism  is  an  evil  in  comparison  with  So- 
ciahsm,  but  Capitalism  is  a  blessing  in  com- 
parison with  mediaevalism,  with  small  industry, 
with  fettered  small  producers  thrown  to  the 
mercy  of  bureaucracy.  To  the  extent  that  we 
are  as  yet  unable  to  realize  the  direct  transition 


38  THE  NEW  POLICIES 

from  small  production  to  Socialism,  to  that 
extent  is  Capitalism  to  a  certain  extent  in- 
evitable as  an  elemental  product  of  small  pro- 
duction and  exchange,  and  to  that  extent  must 
we  make  use  of  Capitalism  (particularly  in 
directing  it  along  the  path  of  State  Capitalism) 
as  an  indirect  link  between  small  production 
and  Socialism,  as  a  means,  a  path,  a  method 
of  raising  the  productive  forces  of  the  country,  ■ 

Facts  have  clearly  demonstrated  that  we 
shall  have  to  defer  the  reconstruction  of  large- 
scale  industry,  and  that  it  is  impossible  to 
carry  on  industry  in  separation  from  agricul- 
ture. Therefore  we  must  first  tackle  the  easier 
problem  of  re-establishing  crafts  and  small- 
scale  industry,  which  have  been  destroyed  by 
the  war  and  blockade. 

It  must  be  the  main  aim  of  all  true  workers 
to  get  local  industry  thoroughly  going  in  the 
country  districts,  hamlets  and  villages;  no 
matter  on  how  small  a  scale.  The  economic 
policy  of  the  State  must  concentrate  on  this. 
Any  development  in  local  industry  is  a  firm 
foundation,  and  a  sure  step,  in  the  building  up 
of  large-scale  industry. 

Formerly  it  was  an  inspector's  duty  simply 


OF  SOVIET  RUSSIA  39 

to  collect  the  full  requisition  duties ;  while  the 
aim  of  the  new  Decree  is  to  collect  the  Agri- 
cultural Tax  as  quickly  as  possible,  and  then 
as  much  of  the  surplus  commodities  as  pos- 
sible by  means  of  barter.  The  man  who  col- 
lects 75  per  cent,  of  the  Agricultural  Tax  and 
then  75  per  cent,  of  surplus  is  doing  a  better 
work  for  the  State  than  a  man  who  collects 
100  per  cent,  of  the  tax  and  then  only  55  per 
cent,  of  surplus  commodities. 

We  shall  compare  the  practical  results  ob- 
tained in  various  districts,  in  some  of  which 
private  capital  will  be  functioning,  in  others, 
co-operative  societies,  and  in  a  few,  pure 
Communist  undertakings.  The  profits  ob- 
tained by  the  capitalists  will  be  their  payment 
for  instructing  us. 

This  will  mean  unrestricted  trade,  in  fact 
Capitalism.  The  latter  will  prove  beneficial  to 
us,  in  proportion  to  the  extent  that  it  aids  us 
to  combat  the  dispersion  of  small-scale  in- 
dustry and  to  some  measure  even  bureaucracy. 
Practical  experimentation  will  teach  us  the 
best  method  to  adopt.  There  is  nothing  really 
dangerous  in  this  policy  for  a  Proletarian 
Government,  so  long  as  the  proletariat  fully 


40  THE  NEW  POLICIES 

retains  the  administrative  power,  the  means  of 
transport  and  large-scale  industry. 


THE   NEW  ECONOMIC   POLICY 
OF  SOVIET  RUSSIA 


THE  NEW  ECONOMIC   POLICY  OF 
SOVIET  RUSSIA. 

BY  N.  BUKHARIN. 

On  July  8th,  1921,  Comrade  Bukfiarin  de- 
livered a  lecture  to  the  delegates  of  the  Third 
World  Congress  of  the  Comintern  in  Moscow 
on  the  significance  of  the  new  economic  policy 
of  Soviet  Russia,  from  which  we  quote  the 
following  passages: 

In  order  to  understand  the  new  policy  and 
its  practical  importance,  we  should  consider  it 
in  connection  with  the  economic  and  social 
crises,  which  we  had  to  go  through  thi$  spring.. 
The  experience  of  the  Russian  Revolution  has 
proved  that  our  former  notions  of  the  revo- 
lutionary process  were  rather  naive.  Even 
the  orthodox  Marxian  section  thought  that  all 
the  proletariat  had  to  do  to  take  over  the  tech- 
nical apparat4is  after  ejecting  the  upper  layers 
of  the  bourgeoisie  was  to  capture  the  reins  of 
power.  Experience  taught  us  something  very 
different  from  that.  It  proved  that  during  the 
proletarian  dictatorship  the  complete  dissolu- 


44  THE  NEW  POLICIES 

tion  of  the  old  capitalist  apparatus  is  a  neces- 
sary stage  in  the  revolutionary  development. 

Perhaps  some  will  object  that  this  experi- 
ence does  not  give  us  a  theoretical  proof  and 
that  the  development  in  other  countries  may 
assume  a  different  character  from  that  of  Rus- 
sia. They  may  say  that  Russia  is  backward, 
her  proletariat  is  not  numerous,  and  big  indus- 
try constitutes  a  small  proportion  of  the 
economy  of  Russia.  In  Western  Europe  and 
in  America,  however,  the  development  will 
take  quite  a  different  direction.  This  idea  can 
be  refuted  not  only  by  Russian  experience — 
we  are  convinced  of  the  absolute  inevitability 
of  an  economic  disorganization  generally  dur- 
ing the  revolutionary  process. 

Every  revolution  is  a  process  of  reorgani- 
zation of  social  relations.  In  a  bourgeois  rev- 
olution this  process  is  not  so  thorough  or  ex- 
tensive as  in  a  proletarian  revolution,  because 
capitalism  has  already  been  developed  and 
only  a  political  transformation  becomes  nec- 
essary. Feudal  property  had  already  become 
private  property,  and  the  bourgeois  revolution 
had  only  to  secure  this  private  property  and 
allow  it  a  wider  scope  of  action.    It  was  main- 


OF  SOVIET  RUSSIA  45 

ly  a  question  of  transferring  the  political  ma- 
chine from  one  set  of  owners  to  another.  But 
even  in  this  case  it  was  necessary  to  undergo 
a  certain  process  of  reorganization,  which  had 
to  be  paid  for  dearly.  Even  a  bourgeois  rev- 
olution is  accompanied  by  a  temporary  decline 
in  productivity.  Such  was  the  case  in  the 
Great  French  Revolution. 

The  same  was  manifested  in  the  American 
Civil  War,  where  economic  development  was 
thrown  back  for  a  decade.  In  a  proletarian 
revolution  the  same  thing  takes  place  on  a 
much  larger  scale.  During  a  proletarian  rev- 
olution we  must  not  only  destroy  the  State  ma- 
chine, but  completely  reorganize  the  industrial 
relations.    That  is  the  most  important  point. 

What  are  the  industrial  relations  in  the 
capitalist  system?  First  of  all  there  is  a  capi- 
talist hierarchy,  the  subordination  of  one  group 
to  another;  higher  up  there  is  the  class  of 
capitalists,  then  follow  the  directors,  then  the 
technical  Intelligentsia,  the  so-called  new  mid- 
dle class,  then  the  skilled  workers  and  finally 
the  rank  and  file  workers.  If  these  industrial 
relations  are  to  be  recognized  it  means  that 
we  must  first  of  all  and  immediately  destroy 


46  THE  NEW  POLICIES 

the  various  ties  that  bind  these  groups.  The 
workers  achieve  this  not  by  street  fights  only, 
but  by  strugghng  industrially  by  means  of 
strikes,  etc.  The  working  class  cannot  win 
the  army  in  time  of  Revolution  if  the  soldiers 
obey  their  officers.  It  is  equally  necessary  to 
bring  about  a  breakdown  in  industrial  dis- 
cipline, if  the  proletariat  is  to  gain  a  hold  over 
the  economic  apparatus. 

Once  these  ties  between  the  classes  and  strata 
are  severed,  the  whole  process  of  production 
will  be  brought  to  a  standstill.  When  the 
workers  strike  or  fight  on  the  barricades,  no 
work  can  be  done.  When  there  is  a  sabotage 
on  the  part  of  the  technical  intelligentsia,  the 
whole  process  of  production  is  interrupted. 
Only  when  the  proletariat  is  fully  in  posses- 
sion of  the  whole  government  machine  can  it 
put  down  such  attempts.  Until  that  time  the 
process  of  production  will  be  paralyzed.  Kaut- 
sky  and  Otto  Bauer  were  talking  utter  rubbish 
when  they  spoke  of  the  continuity  of  the  pro- 
cess of  production  and  wish  to  connect  it  with 
the  revolution.  It  would  be  the  same  if  an 
army  wi.shing  to  defeat  its  officers  were  to 
preserve  a  strict  discipline  under  their  com- 


OF  SOVIET  RUSSIA  47 

mand  instead  of  killing  them.  Either  the 
revolution  will  win,  and  then  there  is  an  in- 
evitable disorganization  of  the  process  of  pro- 
duction, or  discipline  will  be  maintained,  and 
then  there  will  be  no  revolution  at  all.  Every 
revolution  is  paid  for  by  certain  attending 
evils,  and  it  is  only  at  that  price  that  we  can 
bring  about  the  transition  to  higher  forms  of 
economic  life  of  the  revolutionary  proletariat. 
We  need  not  be  afraid  of  that  temporary  dis- 
organization. One  cannot  make  omelettes 
without  breaking  eggs. 

PROLETARIAN   DICTATORSHIP  AND  THE   PEASAN- 
TRY  DURING   THE    CIVIL    WAR. 

Now  it  becomes  clear  that  the  price  to  be 
paid  for  the  revolutionary  process  is  greater 
where  there  is  a  more  stubborn  resistance  on 
the  part  of  all  the  other  classes  and  groups  to 
the  proletariat,  attaining  its  maximum  in  the 
country  which  is  first  in  adopting  the  dicta- 
torship. In  Russia  the  class  struggle  involved 
not  only  a  civil  but  also  a  foreign  war.  Where 
civil  war  is  transformed  into  foreign  war 
against  powerful  States  the  revolution  has  to 
be  paid  for  at  an  outrageous  rate.  This  is  the 
chief    cause    of    our    impoverishment    in    the 


48  THE  NEW  POLICIES 

course  of  the  last  few  years.  Nearly  75  per 
cent,  of  our  small  supplies  and  of  our  latest 
products  had  to  be  given  to  the  Red  Army. 
Every  intelligent  man  will  understand  what 
this  means  to  our  economic  life. 

It  is  impossible  to  live  without  bread.  The 
bread  question  is  the  most  difficult  problem 
of  the  revolution.  The  process  of  economic 
disintegration  during  the  revolution  is  also 
expressed  by  the  severance  of  ties  which  con- 
nect town  and  country.  When  the  battle  of 
classes  is  raging  and  the  process  of  production 
in  towns  is  paralyzed,  communications  with 
the  rural  districts  cease.  The  ties  of  finance 
and  capital  which  bind  the  large  landowners 
and  the  rich  farmers  to  the  banks  are  im- 
mediately severed.  The  same  happened  to  the 
connecting  links  between  the  various  peasant 
co-operative  organizations.  All  exchange  be- 
tween town  and  country  ceases.  The  credit 
system  in  particular  is  ruined.  When  towns 
cease  to  supply  anything  to  the  country,  there 
is  no  stimulus  to  give  anything  to  the  towns. 
The  economic  equilibrium  is  destroyed. 

As  the  town  population  must  exist  also  in 
time  of  revolution,    special    means    must    be 


OF  SOVIET  RUSSIA  49 

found  to  feed  it.  First  the  supplies  stored  in 
towns  are  consumed.  Then  compulsory  means 
may  be  adopted  against  the  peasants.  The 
third  expedient  is  the  consciousness  of  the 
peasants  that  only  the  Proletarian  State  de- 
fends them  against  the  landowners,  the 
usurers,  and  others. 

The  peasants  were  greatly  influenced  by 
that  consideration  during  the  civil  war  against 
foreign  counter  revolution.  Our  compulsory 
methods  found  their  economic  justification  in 
this  circumstance.  As  regards  the  arguments 
of  the  Opportunists  that  the  peasantry  was 
opposed  to  the  Bolsheviks  and  that  the  latter 
rule  by  sheer  force,  every  Marxist  will  say 
that  this  is  nonsense.  Not  even  the  Czar's 
government  was  capable  of  performing  such 
a  feat.  Our  compulsory  actions  found  their 
economic  justification  in  the  fact  that  the  peas- 
ants, as  a  class,  fully  understand  that  there  is 
no  other  force  that  can  defend  them  from  the 
land-owners,  of  whose  estates  the  peasants 
have  taken  possession.  In  Russia  82  per  cent,  of 
land  formerly  owned  by  large  landowners  was 
given  to  the  peasants.  The  close-fisted  peas- 
ant will  not  allow  this  land  to  be  taken  from 


50  THE  NEW  POLICIES 

him.  He  was  wise  enough  to  perceive  that 
the  main  economic  problem  is  to  keep  fast  to 
the  land,  as  land  alone  gives  him  the  certainty 
of  growing  food.  That  is  why  he  put  up  with 
our  methods  of  requisitions  and  that  is  why 
we  were  on  the  whole  able  to  maintain  an 
equilibrium  in  our  social  structure.  We  felt 
the  ground  under  our  feet. 

Of  couse,  every  war  has  its  laws.  The  ex- 
perience of  capitalist  countries  has  shown  that 
the  economic  changes  can  more  easily  be 
effected  in  war  than  in  peace  time.  The  same 
can  be  observed  in  our  country.  Certain 
classes,  especially  the  petty  bourgeoisie,  were 
honestly  convinced  that  everything  must  be 
sacrified  for  war.  Due  to  this  we  were  able 
to  estimate  our  resources  and  regulate  econ- 
omy by  strongly  applying  the  dictatorship  of 
the  proletariat. 

But  after  war  was  over  the  contradictions 
in  this  economic  system  came  to  the  surface  at 
once,  first  and  foremost  the  contradictions  be- 
tween the  regulating  tendencies  and  the 
anarchical  tendencies  of  the  peasantry. 


OF  SOVIET  RUSSIA  51 

INFLEXIBILITY  OF  THE  PEASANT  AND  DECLASS- 
ING   OF  THE   PROLETARIAT. 

It  was  proved  economically  that  if  we  take 
away  all  the  surplus  of  the  peasants'  produce 
we  take  away  almost  all  the  incentive  to  fur- 
ther production.  If  the  peasant  knows  that 
he  will  be  deprived  of  all  surplus  produce  he 
will  only  produce  for  himself  and  nothing  for 
others.  The  only  incentive  that  remains  is  of 
an  intellectual  kind,  the  knowledge  that  he 
must  support  the  workers  who  defend  him 
from  the  landlord.  After  the  victory  at  the 
civil  war  fronts  the  effect  of  his  incentive  was 
destroyed.  It  was  observed  that  the  cultivated 
area  diminished.  This  was  also  due  to  the 
drafting  of  the  labor  forces  to  the  army,  to 
the  decrease  of  the  stocks  of  cattle,  peasant 
stock  generally,  etc.  Agriculture  was  in  a 
critical  condition,  and  we  were  in  danger  of 
being  left  without  sufficient  bread. 

Naturally  this  state  of  agriculture  reacted 
on  industry.  It  is  not  true  that  our  technical 
apparatus  is  totally  disorganized.  In  many 
important  branches  of  the  textile  and  metal  in- 
dustries, as  well  as  others,  we  possess  a  good 


52  THE  NEW  POLICIES 

technical  apparatus.  But  the  great  problem 
facing  us  is  how  to  provide  the  towns  with  the 
necessaries  of  life.  In  our  country  the  work- 
ers are  hungry  because  the  exchange  of  goods 
between  town  and  country  is  paralyzed. 

These  economic  conditions  have  their  social 
consequences.  When  large  industry  is  in  such 
a  miserable  condition  the  workers  seek  to  find 
a  way,  e.  g.,  by  manufacturing  small  articles 
of  every  day  use  at  the  places  where  they  work, 
which  they  subsequently  sell.  By  such  meth- 
ods the  proletariat  becomes  declassed.  When 
in  this  way  the  worker  becomes  interested  in 
free  trade,  he  begins  to  regard  himself  as  a 
small  producer,  a  petty  bourgeois.  This  means 
the  transformation  of  the  workers  into  petty 
bourgeois  with  all  their  chracteristics.  The 
proletariat  goes  back  to  the  village  where  it 
works  as  small  craftsmen.  The  greater  the 
disorganization  the  stronger  the  process  of 
degeneration  of  the  proletariat,  now  demand- 
ing free  trade. 

The  proletariat  as  such  is  weakened.  More- 
over the  flower  of  the  proletariat  was  destroy- 
ed at  the  front.  Our  army  consisted  of  an 
amorphous  peasant  mass  which  was  like  wax 


OF  SOVIET  RUSSIA  63 

in  the  hands  of  the  communist,  and  non-party 
men.  We  have  lost  an  immense  number  of 
these  proletarians,  and  it  was  precisely  these 
who  enjoyed  the  greatest  esteem  and  con- 
fidence in  the  factories.  Moreover,  we  were 
compelled  to  utilize  the  best  strata  of  the  prol- 
etariat for  the  State  machine,  the  administra- 
tion of  all  the  villages,  etc.  To  organize  a 
proletarian  dictatorship  in  a  peasant  country 
meant  to  distribute  the  proletarians  among 
certain  localities  like  so  many  pieces  on  a 
chess-board,  in  order  to  guide  the  peasants. 
One  can  imagine  how  the  factories  suffered  in 
consequence  through  lack  of  proletarian  forces. 
Only  the  worst  elements  remained  in  the  fac- 
tories. And  on  the  top  of  it  all  came  the  de- 
classing  of  the  workers.  Such  is  the  social 
crisis  within  the  working  class. 

The  peasantry  had  also  to  suffer,  but  not  to 
the  same  extent.  If  we  take  an  economic  view 
of  the  subject,  i.  e.,  not  in  the  sense  of  power 
and  political  rigths,  the  peasantry  has  derived 
more  benefit  from  the  revolution  than  all  the 
other  classes.  Economically  the  peasantry  is 
better  off  than  the  proletariat,  though  the  lat- 
ter is  the  privileged  class.     The  peasant  feels 


54  THE  NEW  POLICIES 

himself  stronger  than  ever.  There  are  other, 
secondary  causes.  The  peasant  obtained  a 
good  training  in  the  army.  He  returned  from 
the  war  a  different  man.  He  is  now  on  a 
higher  intellectual  and  moral  level  than  he  was 
before.  Now  he  understands  politics  very 
well.  He  says:  We  are  the  predominating 
force  and  we  shall  not  allow  others  to  treat  us 
as  silly  children.  We  want  to  feed  the  work- 
ers, but  we  are  the  senior  partners  and  demand 
our  rights. 

As  soon  as  the  war  was  over  the  peasants 
immediately  presented  their  demands.  They 
are  interested  in  small  trade.  They  are  sup- 
porters of  free  trade,  and  opposed  to  the  com- 
pulsory socialist  system  of  economy.  These 
demands  were  presented  in  the  form  of  peas- 
ant risings  in  various  districts  in  Siberia, 
Tambov,  etc.  Things  did  not  look  so  bad  as 
the  counter  revolutionary  press  tried  to  pic- 
ture it,  but  these  events  were  symptomatic. 
In  their  eyes  the  political  solution  of  the 
economic  situation  consists  in  the  motto  "For 
the  Bolsheviks  and  against  the  Communists." 

At  first  this  appears  quite  absurd,  but 
though  it  is  cryptically  formulated  this  motto 


OF  SOVIET  RUSSIA  55 

has  an  intelligent  explanation.  At  the  time  of 
the  October  Revolution  and  previous  to  it  we 
were  the  party  that  told  the  peasant  to  kill  the 
landowner  and  to  take  his  land.  The  Bolshe- 
viks were  then  thought  to  be  capital  fellows. 
They  gave  the  peasants  everything  and  de- 
manded nothing  in  return.  But  in  the  end  we 
became  the  Party  which  gave  nothing  and  de- 
manded everything  from  the  peasants.  They 
were  consequently  against  the  communists, 
who  were  taking  away  their  bread  and  more- 
over preached  absurd  ideas  of  communism, 
unsuitable  to  the  peasants.  The  second  watch- 
word was  free  trade.  The  first  watchword 
was  "For  non-party  Soviets  against  the  dic- 
tatorship of  a  party."  If  there  are  even  com- 
munists who  fail  to  understand  that  a  class 
can  only  rule  if  it  has  a  head,  and  the  party  is 
the  head  of  a  class  then  we  can  easily  under- 
stand the  peasants  failing  to  grasp  that  idea. 
Such  is  the  intellectual  atmosphere  prevailing 
among  the  lower  middle-class  and  the  peas- 
antry. 

The  proletariat,  too,  insofar  as  it  was  de- 
classed, of  necessity  shared  the  same  views. 
In  some  places  even  metal  workers  took  up 


56  THE  NEW  POLICIES 

the  watchwords:  "Free  trade,"  against  the 
"Communist,"  for  class  dictatorship  but  against 
Party  dictatorship.  Thus  the  equiHbrium  be- 
tween the  proletariat  and  the  peasantry  was  de- 
stroyed. A  misunderstanding  arose  which 
threatened  the  whole  system  of  the  proletarian 
dictatorship.  The  crisis  found  its  expression 
in  the  Kronstadt  mutiny.  The  documents 
which  have  since  been  brought  to  light  show 
clearly  that  the  affair  was  instigated  by  purely 
white  guard  centres,  but  at  the  same  time  the 
Kronstadt  mutiny  was  a  petty  bourgeois  re- 
bellion against  the  socialist  system  of  econ- 
nomic  compulsion.  Sailors  are  mostly  sons 
of  peasants,  especially  Ukrainian  peasants. 
Ukraine  is  more  petty  bourgeois  than  Central 
Russia.  The  peasants  there  resemble  more 
the  German  farmers  than  the  Russian  peas- 
ants. They  are  against  Czarism  but  have  little 
sympathy  for  communism.  The  sailors  were 
home  on  leave  and  there  became  strongly  in- 
fected with  peasant  ideas.  This  was  the  cause 
of  the  revolt. 


OF  SOVIET  RUSSIA  67 

THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  THE  NEW  POLICY. 

As  is  known  we  acted  with  all  speed ;  we 
mobilized  and  sent  against  Kronstadt  one- 
third  of  our  Party  Congress,  we  lost  many 
comrades,  but  we  quelled  the  rebellion.  But 
victory  could  not  solve  the  question.  We  had 
to  take  certain  measures.  Had  there  been  a 
revolution  in  Germany  we  could  have  brought 
workers  from  there  and  have  made  a  surgical 
operation.  But  we  have  to  act  on  our  own. 
There  was  one  principle  which  we  had  to 
maintain  at  all  costs:  the  preservation  of  the 
dictatorship.  It  was  clear  that  we  were  making 
no  concessions  to  the  peasants.  We  had  the 
picture  of  the  Hungarian  affair  before  us.  It  is 
true  we  should  have  come  into  power  again 
after  a  few  months  or  years,  but  the  bour- 
geoisie would  try  its  method  of  reorganiza- 
tion, which  costs  something,  and  then  we 
would  again  try  ours.  The  disorganization  of 
national  industry  would  be  so  terrible  that  no 
one  can  even  guess  whether  any  tolerable 
state  of  things  could  ever  result  from  this 
chaos. 

When  the  State  apparatus  is  in  our  hands 


58  THE  NEW  POLICIES 

we  can  guide  it  in  any  desired  direction.  But 
unless  we  are  at  the  helm  we  can  give  no  di- 
rection at  all.  Consequently  we  must  seize 
power  and  keep  it  and  make  no  political  con- 
cessions. But  we  may  make  many  economic 
concessions.  But  the  fact  of  the  matter  is  we 
are  making  economic  concessions  in  order  to 
avoid  making  political  concessions.  We  shall 
agree  to  no  coalition  government  or  anything 
like  it,  not  even  equal  rights  to  peasants  and 
workers.  We  cannot  do  that.  The  conces- 
sions do  not  in  any  way  change  the  class  char- 
acter of  the  dictatorship.  When  a  State  makes 
concessions  to  another  class  it  does  in  no  way 
alter  its  class  character,  no  more  than  a  fac- 
tory owner,  who  makes  concessions  to  his  em- 
ployees, becomes  a  worker.  If  we  look  at  it 
from  a  social  and  political  standpoint  the  sig- 
nificance of  the  concessions  lies  in  the  pacifica- 
tion and  neutralization  of  the  lower  middle 
class.  Our  former  investigations  brought  us 
to  the  conclusion  that  the  economic  difficulties 
consisted  in  the  lack  of  an  incentive  to  in- 
crease production.  Now  this  incentive  has 
been  offered  in  the  substitution  of  a  tax  in 
kind  instead  of  requisitions.     Now  the  peas- 


OF  SOVIET  RUSSIA  59 

ant  knows  that  he  will  have  to  give  up  more 
if  her  produces  more,  but  he  knows  also  that 
he  will  keep  more.  Experience  has  already 
shown  that  such  are  his  calculations.  As  soon 
as  we  decided  on  this  new  system  at  our  party 
congress  the  area  under  cultivation  increased 
at  once  to  that  of  1916  and  even  1915, 

Politically  a  general  pacification  has  set  in. 
The  guerilla  warfare  in  the  Ukraine  has  lost 
its  intensity.  These  political  measures  suc- 
ceeded in  putting  an  end  to  the  Makno  gangs. 
Some  will  naturally  doubt  the  wisdom  of  mak- 
ing these  concessions  to  the  petty  bourgeoisie. 
They  may  say  that  a  period  of  accumulation, 
such  as  existed  hitherto,  has  been  inaugurated, 
that  usury  will  result  which  will  transform 
itself  into  industrial  capitalism.  We  are  faced 
by  the  same  danger  as  we  were  at  the  time  of 
the  Brest  Peace,  when  we  stood  in  danger  of 
being  engulfed  by  German  capitahsm.  How- 
ever, such  a  state  of  things  is  only  temporary. 
Our  position  now  is  that  we  want  bread  and  a 
pacific  peasantry,  or  else  we  shall  go  to  the 
dogs.  Even  the  worker  will  revolt  against  his 
own  government  if  he  has  nothing  to  eat. 
Communism  requires  a  certain  time  to  mature 


60  THE  NEW  POLICIES 

and  this  process  under  our  conditions  of  life 
is  more  painful  than  it  would  otherwise  be. 
We  have  in  our  hands  large  industry,  the  coal 
industry,  transport,  etc.  A  whole  period  of 
history  is  required  to  transform  the  peasant 
into  a  capitalist.  Our  view  is  that  capitalism 
will  rise  slowly  from  below,  but  we  will  keep 
under  our  control  the  chief  branches  of  in- 
dustry. Once  this  is  achieved  all  the  industrial 
processes  will  assume  their  normal  course. 
The  declassing  of  the  proletariat  will  cease, 
we  shall  be  able  to  invite  foreign  workers,  etc. 
We  could  then  pass  on  to  the  technical  revolu- 
tion, and  will  be  able  to  realize  the  electrifica- 
tion of  Russia,  which  is  now  in  an  embryonic 
stage.  If  we  succeed  in  realizing  even  a  part 
of  our  program  then  we  shall  get  the  better 
of  the  petty  bourgeois  tendencies.  If  the 
peasant  receives  from  us  electric  light  and 
power  he  will  be  transformed  into  a  social 
functionary  and  his  proprietary  instincts  will 
not  be  offended. 

If  the  tendencies  of  capitalist  growth  gain 
the  upper  hand  over  the  tendencies  to  improve 
large  industry,  then  we  are  doomed.  But  we 
hope  the  contrary  will  be  the  case — then  we 


OF  SOVIET  RUSSIA  61 

shall  master  all  difficulties  in  the  field  of  eco- 
nomics. 

Paul  Levi  and  all  the  Opportunists  of  the 
world  say:  "You  see,  the  Bolsheviks  are 
making  concessions  to  the  peasants  and  we 
make  concessions  to  the  masses.'  But  this 
analogy  is  not  correct.  We  make  concessions 
to  secure  the  equilibrium  of  the  Soviet  system, 
Levi  makes  concessions  to  maintain  the  capi- 
talist equilibirum,  and  he  does  not  seem  to  no- 
tice this  little  difference.  We  might  as  well 
say  that  there  is  an  army  in  France  and  there 
is  an  army  here,  a  police  system  there  and  an 
Extraordinary  Commission  here.  The  es- 
sential point  is — what  are  the  class  functions 
of  these  institutions,  and  which  class  do  they 
serve?  Whoever  makes  an  abstraction  of  the 
class  lives  in  the  skies,  not  on  earth.  And  I 
think  it  would  better  if  our  enemies  remain  in 
the  skies  and  we  remain  on  solid  earth. 


THE  INTELLECTUALS  AND  THE 
RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION. 


THE  INTELLECTUALS  AND  THE 
RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION. 

BY  S.   J.   RUTGERS. 

Whilst  the  conquest  of  the  power  by  the 
working  class  seemed  a  thing  of  the  far  fu- 
ture, the  question  of  the  difficulties  which  sub- 
sequently would  arise  was  not  much  thought 
about.  Most  of  us  supposed  it  would  all  be 
plain  sailing  afterwards,  and  this  for  two 
reasons.  In  the  first  place,  because  it  was 
taken  for  granted  that,  by  the  time  of  the 
capture  of  power  by  the  proletariat,  capi- 
talistic society  would  have  attained  to  a  de- 
gree of  technical  and  economic  perfection 
that  would  ensure  sufficiency  to  all.  And  in 
the  second  place  because  no  doubt  was  felt 
about  the  attitude  of  the  intellectuals;  they 
were  sure  to  adapt  themselves  to  the  new  or- 
der and  would  prove  the  allies  of  the  con- 
quering proletariat  since, — as  was  assumed — 
their  chances,  material  and  intellectual,  would 
be  better  in  a  socialistic  society  than  in  the 
present  one,  weighed  down  by  the  ever  in- 


66  THE  NEW  POLICIES 

creasing  pressure  of  trust-capital.  A  serious 
disturbance  in  the  apparatus  of  production 
need  not  be  feared,  we  thought,  the  import- 
ance of  the  capitalist's  role  in  the  actual  con- 
trol of  industry  being  on  the  wane,  as  it  was, 
and  there  seemed  no  grave  difficulties  in  the 
way  of  the  reconstruction  of  society  under  the 
dictatorship  of  the  proletariat. 

It  was,  of  course  plain,  that  a  fierce  fight 
would  have  to  be  fought  for  the  conquest  of 
the  power,  but  in  this  very  fight  the  workers 
and  their  organs  of  class  struggle  would  de- 
velop new  energies,  and  thus  contribute  to 
the  simplification  of  the  problem. 

This  then,  was  the  current  conception  of 
the  matter.  But  Russia  reality  wears  a  very 
different  aspect. 

In  the  first  place,  the  establishment  of  the 
workers'  dictatorship  was  rendered  possible 
and  necessary  in  Russia — and  this  will  in  all 
probability  hold  good  for  further  develop- 
ments of  the  world-revolution  also — as  a  con- 
sequence of  the  collapse  of  capitalistic  so- 
ciety. Not  in  abundance  but  in  misery  the 
New  Society  is  born. 

Even  before  the  world-war    it  was    plain 


OF  SOVIET  RUSSIA  67 

that  Capitalism  was  past  its  creative  period  of 
still  increasing-  technical  perfection  of  the  ap- 
paratus of  production.  Imperialism  had  no 
use  for  the  overwhelming  masses  of  the  means 
of  production  it  manufactured,  and  sought 
salvation  in  extension  rather  than  in  intensi- 
fication by  means  of  an  improved  technique. 
Likewise,  the  tendency  to  transfer  industries 
to  regions  not  yet  opened  up,  where  raw  ma- 
terials and  labor  are  cheap,  means  a  lowering 
of  the  average  standard  of  technical  power. 
And,  in  addition  there  set  in  an  ever-increas- 
ing waste  of  capital  in  unproductive  expenses, 
speculative  enterprises,  etc.,  culminating  in  the 
world-war,  which  in  its  turn,  overshot  the 
mark,  and  converted  the  process  of  capitalist 
development  into  the  opposite  direction. 

Not  only  has  capital  proved  incapable  of 
further  growth,  and  has  it  become  a  hindrance 
to  the  natural  development  of  the  productive 
forces,  but  it  has,  once  more,  revealed  a  sad 
truth,  to-wit,  that  a  class  does  not  die,  without 
defending  itself  to  the  very  last,  resorting  to 
the  utmost  extremities  of  cruelty  and  corrup- 
tion. From  Denikin  to  Lloyd  George,  the 
leaders   of   reaction,   have   to   a   man,   shown 


68  THE  NEW  POLICIES 

themselves  absolutely  devoid  of  human  feel- 
ing; without  pity  or  shame  they  have  pushed 
on  over  hills  of  dead  and  through  deserts 
of  misery  for  the  sole  sake  of  putting  off 
though  even  for  a  single  day,  the  downfall  of 
a  system  which  history  has  doomed.  The  en- 
tire capitalist  class  is  determined  to  drown  so- 
ciety in  blood  and  let  civilization,  material 
and  intellectual,  crash  down  into  the  bottom- 
less abyss  of  universal  ruin  and  chaos,  rather 
than  of  its  free  will,  concede  to  the  proletariat 
one  single  position  of  power. 

It  is  a  consequence  of  the  class-struggle 
which  some  of  us  have  perhaps  shrunk  from 
facing  in  this,  its  fierce  extreme,  that  classes  in 
power  maintain  themselves  as  long  as  they 
have  products  at  their  disposal  to  bribe  parts 
of  the  working  classes,  and  materials  to  make 
weapons  of  for  the  destruction  of  rebels.  We 
see  this  day  in  Russia,  and  we  know  both  by 
theory  and  by  practice,  that  Communist  Society 
can  arise  only  after  a  terrific  struggle,  which, 
in  destroying  the  power  of  capital  must  at  the 
same  time  dam.age,  and,  partly,  destroy  the 
possibilities  of  production.  The  sneering 
phrase    of    "the    Socialism    of    hunger"    ex- 


OF  SOVIET  RUSSIA  69 

presses  a  terrible  truth  which  may,  possibly, 
prove  more  terrible  to  Western  Europe  than, 
even,  to  Russia. 

And  the  attitude  of  the  intellectuals  as  a 
group  in  the  widest  meaning  of  the  word,  is, 
in  part  at  least,  determined  by  this  circum- 
stance. Toward  the  Social  Revolution  the 
attitude  of  the  intellectual  as  a  social  group 
has  always  been  one  of  dislike,  and  the  gulf 
between  workers  and  intellectuals  has  grad- 
ually widened  and  deepened.  This  is  pretty 
generally  admitted  even  by  men  like,  for  in- 
stance. Dr.  Max  Adler,  who,  nevertheless  ex- 
pects great  things  for  the  Social  Revolution 
from  the  intellectuals.  In  "Socialism  and  the 
Intellectuals"  he  writes  (p.  23)  :  "The  very 
class-antagonism  which,  finally,  by  arousing 
its  class-consciousness,  compels  the  proletariat 
to  further  culture,  drives  the  intellectuals  into 
the  camp  which  most  strenuously  opposes 
this  craving  for  culture,  the  camp  of  the  bour- 
geoisie". 

The  attitude  of  University  undergraduates 
in  the  various  countries  likewise  points  to- 
wards   an     increasingly     reactionary    temper 


70  THE  NEW  POLICIES 

even  amongst  this  flower  of  the  intellectual 
flock. 

In  the  capitalistic  system  the  degree  up  to 
which  middle-class  intellectuals  are  able  to 
achieve  a  relative  independence  in  matters 
material  and  mental,  is  determined  by  the 
bourgeoisie's  valuation  of  their  services ;  and 
not  only  this,  but  their  culture  in  itself  is, 
moreover,  necessarily  culture  of  a  bourgeois 
order.  The  environment  and  the  education  of 
the  intellectual  have  this  for  their  one  aim. 
The  idiotic  school  system,  which  all  but  ab- 
solutely bars  general  culture  in  order  to  waste 
time  upon  all  kinds  of  irrelevant  information 
which,  if  eventually  needed,  may  be  had  from 
any  handbook ;  the  burden  of  lessons  to  be 
learned  by  rote  and  work  to  be  done  at  home, 
which  prevents  future  intellectuals  from  gath- 
ering any  experience  of  life  in  their  leisure 
hours;  the  promoting  of  ^n  exaggerated  and 
consequently  senseless  sport:  all  this,  as  a  sys- 
tem of  education,  compares  only  with  military 
drill  which,  of  set  purpose,  day  by  day,  for 
months  at  a  time,  in  an  all  but  absolutely 
stupefying  manner,  repeats  a  score  of  move- 
ments and  exercises  which  the  dullest  might 


OF  SOVIET  RUSSIA  71 

easily  master  within  a  few  weeks,  and  this, 
avowedly,  in  order  to  deaden  the  intellect  and 
enforce  a  habit  of  mechanical  obedience.  The 
little  world  of  the  University  undergraduate, 
fenced  off  from  real  life,  outwardly  and 
seemingly  "free"  and  the  secluded  circle,  ani- 
mated by  an  arrogant  caste-spirit,  in  which 
army  officers  move,  are  means  to  one  and  the 
same  end :  the  maintaining  of  exploitation. 
Even  to  workers  the  process  of  emancipation 
from  bourgeois  ways  of  thinking  and  bour- 
geois culture  is  the  principal  hindrance  in 
their  struggle  for  freedom ;  how  much  the 
more  then  must  this  be  the  case  with  bour- 
geois and  semi-bourgeois  intellectuals! 

And  in  this  respect,  class  antagonisms  have 
not,  of  late  years,  lessened,  but  on  the  con- 
trary, they  have  increased.  Imperialist-na- 
tionalist ideology  has  conquered  tjie  whole 
bourgeois-intellectual  world.  This  ideology 
was  the  promotor  of  the  past  war  as  it  is  the 
abetter  of  the  war  in  the  midst  of  which  we 
now  hve  and  of  the  war  which  is  bound  to 
come. 

The  fact  that  it  is  precisely  the  intellectuals 
who  generally  speaking  are  the  propagandists 


72  THE  NEW  POLICIES 

of  Imperialism,  is  not  a  mere  accident.  Ex- 
tension of  the  world-power  of  capital  means 
extension  of  bourgeois  culture  over  all  the 
earth,  and,  therewith,  extension  of  the  possi- 
bilities, material  and  other,  which  favor  the 
apostles  of  bourgeois  culture  and  the  adepts 
of  bourgeois  science.  It  opens  perspectives 
which  make  one  forget  the  deadly  monotony 
of  a  drudge's  existence,  forget  material  and 
moral  slavery.  The  more  desperate  the 
reality  of  bourgeois  life,  the  more  passionate, 
and  utterly  reckless  the  ardor  with  which  the 
more  energetic  among  them  embraces  this 
new  ideal.  Pioneers  of  science,  engineers, 
ministers  of  religion,  soldiers,  politicians, 
and  journalists  leaving  their  study,  sally  forth 
to  the  conquest  of  the  world,  penetrating  into 
the  farthest  recesses  of  Asia  and  Africa.  And 
the  home-stayers  have  a  new  task  in  keeping 
down  by  fraud  and  by  force  the  tumultuous 
masses,  the  "enemies  of  culture".  The  means 
at  their  disposal  are  abundant,  and,  if  they 
should  prove  insufficient  for  the  purpose, 
promises  are  given  the  more  readily.  The 
process  of  corruption  has  penetrated  deeply 
into  the  layers  of  skilled  labor  itself. 


OF  SOVIET  RUSSIA  73 

All  this  hardly  makes  it  probable  that  in- 
tellectuals should  prove  helpful  in  the  build- 
ing up  of  Communist  Society.  It  is  contended 
that  under  Communism  conditions  of  life  will 
be  better,  for  intellectuals  as  for  others,  than 
they  are  or  possibly  can  be,  under  the  present 
regime,  for  the  overwhelming  majority.  This, 
however,  seems  exceedingly  improbable  for  the 
transitional  period  of  the  dictatorship  of  the 
proletariat,  with  which  the  present  generation 
has  chiefly,  if  not  exclusively,  to  reckon. 

The  Russian  Revolution  has  demonstrated 
the  fact  that,  on  the  whole,  bourgeois  intel- 
lectuals do  not  readily  adapt  themselves  to  the 
new  order  of  things.  The  causes  are  obvious. 
As  was  inevitable  in  so  great  a  general  im- 
poverishment, the  preference  accorded  to  the 
claims  of  the  workers  caused  detriment  to  all 
the  privileged  classes.  And  this  not  only  ma- 
terially, as  in  the  matter  of  food,  clothes  and 
housing,  but  also  in  many  things  which  we 
are  accustomed  to  consider  as  pertaining  to 
the  mental  and  moral  privilege  of  bourgeois 
culture:  a  certain  outward  refinement,  a  sense 
of  recognized  superiority,  the  ready  disposal 
of  manifold  resources  of  art  and  science. 


74  THE  NEW  POLICIES 

As  to  the  last-named  point,  it  may  perhaps 
be  objected  that  the  new  Workers'  Govern- 
ment in  this  very  matter  makes  the  utmost 
exertions  to  promote  and  render  accessible  to 
the  generality  both  art  and  science.  But  it 
should,  at  the  same  time,  not  be  forgotten  that 
socializing  a  thing  means  restricting  the  rights 
of  the  few  who  formerly  had  the  exclusive 
disposal  of  it.  Partly,  too,  efforts  take  a  dif- 
ferent direction ;  and,  as  to  important  re- 
sources which  cannot,  without  further  prepa- 
ration, be  made  accessible  to  the  masses,  these 
are  reserved  for  the  building  up  of  the  new 
life,  and  this,  again,  entails  restrictions  upon 
individual  use.  Lastly,  to  the  intellectual  preju- 
diced by  bourgeois  thought  and  habit  of  ijiind, 
the  new  surroundings  are  most  depressive,  so 
as  to  seriously  impair  his  capacity  for  work. 

It  has  been  said:  "the  workers  stand  for  a 
new  culture,  and  this  must  draw  the  intel- 
lectuals to  them". 

But  the  culture  of  the  intellectuals  is  not 
culture  in  the  absolute  sense,  but  bourgeois 
culture;  and  bourgeois  culture  is  not  only 
alien  but  even  inimical  to  proletarian  culture. 

What  is  more:  proletarian  culture  cannot 


OF  SOVIET  RUSSIA  75 

exist  but  by  conquering  bourgeois  culture; 
and  this  is  one  of  the  most  radical  processes  of 
the  proletarian  revolution.  Monopoly  must 
be  destroyed  not  in  production  only;  not  in 
material  output  only  must  bureaucratic  lead- 
ership be  replaced  by  the  active  co-operation 
of  all  and  each,  but  the  same  thing  must  be 
achieved  for  science,  art  and  all  culture  in 
general.  Since  then,  intellect  must  be  absorbed 
into  the  mass,  the  bourgeois  intellectuals 
as  a  class  must  be  destroyed,  it  is  somewhat 
naive  to  count  on  the  support  of  these  very 
intellectuals. 

If  and  in  so  far  as  bourgeois  intellectuals 
obtain  the  lead  in  the  proletarian  revolution 
and  the  building  up  of  the  new^  society,  and 
exert  a  preponderant  influence  upon  the  new 
system  of  production  and  the  new  culture,  it 
will  be  to  the  harm  of  the  Proletarian  Revo- 
lution. For,  as  monopolists  of  bourgeois  cul- 
ture, the  intjellectuals  must  be  the  very  last  to 
be  able  to  see  and  solve  the  new  problems. 

This  sets  the  workers  a  difficult  task,  and 
it  will  be  well  to  exarnine  the  manner  in  which 
these   difficulties   cropped   up   in   Russia,   and 


76  THE  NEW  POLICIES 

the  degree  in  which  they  were  or  were  not 
overcome. 

As  a  preliminary  remark,  it  will  of  course, 
be  evident  that  the  attitude  and  development 
of  the  intellectuals  as  a  social  group  must  be 
considered  in  the  first  place. 

Single  individuals  of  the  bourgeois  intel- 
lectual middle-class  join  the  workers'  class; 
it  is  plain  they  do  so,  and  logical  that  they 
should;  since  they  are  members  of  a  middle- 
class.  These  individuals  of  course,  can  do 
useful  work,  even  though,  as  is  probable,  they 
should  in  many  cases  prove  unable  to  keep  up 
with  the  progress  of  the  revolution,  especially 
if  that  progress  be  a  rapid  one.  These  ele- 
ments may  even  be  said  to  constitute  an  in- 
dispensable factor  in  the  transition  from 
bourgeois  to  proletarian  society.  As  it  is 
necessary  to  take  over  and  use  the  technical 
resources  uf  capitalism  for  the  building  up  of 
the  new  world,  so  it  is  necessary,  and  neces- 
sary in  an  even  higher  degree,  to  take  over 
and  use  the  results  of  science  and  experience, 
upon  which  this  technique  is  based.  It  is  true 
these  are,  partly,  to  be  found  in  books;  but 
these  books  too  are  as  yet  accessible  only  by 


OF  SOVIET  RUSSIA  77 

the  aid  of  specialists.  And  for  the  education 
of  the  new  generation  we  still,  in  the  main, 
must  look  to  the  bourgeois  intellectual  world 
for  teachers.  This  co-operation  of  the  old 
and  the  new  renders,  therefore,  all  the  more 
necessary  a  lengthy  period  of  proletarian  dic- 
tatorship, in  which  the  proletariat  must  ac- 
quire the  mental  qualities  demanded  by  the 
new  society.  In  this  process  members  of  the 
intellectual  class  who  have  broken  with  bour- 
geois culture  form,  of  course,  important  ele- 
ments. They,  in  a  manner,  betray  the  secrets 
of  the  fWDwer  of  their  class  to  the  enemy ; 
small  wonder  if,  as  the  struggle  grows  hotter, 
the  full  measure  of  the  exploiters'  hatred  is 
poured  out  on  them. 

The  number  of  these  who  thus  change 
sides  will,  however,  necessaily,  be  relatively 
small ;  and  an  absolute  breaking  with  the  past, 
also  in  respect  of  matters  of  the  mind,  may 
and  must  be  demanded.  All  the  same,  this  re- 
fers to  exceptional  cases,  which  are  not  con- 
clusive for  our  attitude  towards  the  intellec- 
tuals as  a  social  phenomenon. 

As  is  well  known,  the  generality  of  the  in- 
tellectuals and  of  the  technically  educated  in 


78  THE  NEW  POLICIES 

Russia  after  the  October  Revolution  refused  to 
serve  under  the  proletarian  Government  and 
even  attempted  sabotage  on  a  large  scale,  and 
systematic  obstruction.  This  at  once  caused 
hesitation,  even  among  certain  groups  of  com- 
munists, and  there  were  some  who  advocated 
a  policy  of  concessions  to  the  Mensheviki,  in 
order  to  arrive  at  co-operation.  These  pro- 
jects, however,  were  not  realized  and  it  cer- 
tainly is  one  of  the  very  greatest  among  the 
many  great  merits  of  Lenin,  that,  in  this 
critical  situation  he,  by  his  unflinching  firm- 
ness and  unconquerable  optimism,  restored 
courage  and  self-reliance  to  many  quailing 
hearts. 

Now  that  it  is  all  past  and  over,  this  may 
perhaps  seem  to  many  of  us  the  natural  and 
logical  acceptance  of  a  principle  professed 
from  the  outset  and  always  adhered  to.  But 
when  all  circumstances  and  the  personal  feel- 
ings of  those  who  played  a  part  in  the  October 
Revolution  become  known,  it  will  be  reaUzed 
what  it  means  to  act  up  to  principles  in  a  situ- 
ation like  this  and  claim  all  power  for  the 
workers. 

Having    refused    the   co-operation    of    the 


OF  SOVIET  RUSSIA  79 

Mensheviki,  the  workers  had  to  take  upon 
their  own  shoulders  the  overwhelmingly  huge 
task  of  administration  and  reconstruction.  It 
was  a  thing  that  required  an  almost  super- 
human courage  to  do  as  a  worker  did  at  the 
time  of  the  formation  of  the  first  Council  of 
People's  Commissaries,  to-wit,  to  take  upon 
himself,  having  nothing  to  rely  upon  but  the 
scanty  experience  earned  in  the  administration 
of  a  local  paper,  and  his  Comminist  convic- 
tion, to  administer,  conjointly  with  the  trade- 
union  concerned,  the  Postal  Service;  or,  as 
another  did, — although  after  a  time  he  was 
compelled  to  solicit  for  a  more  practical  task 
— to  offer  to  take  charge  of  the  publications 
of  the  Secret  Archives. 

It  is  difficult  to  fully  realize  what  it  meant 
to  assume  the  control  of  the  banks,  at  a  time 
when  the  counter-revolution  and  the  system  of 
sabotage  had  established  their  principal  bases 
precisely  in  the  banks.  Who  thinks  of  Trotz- 
sky  now,  sees  the  well-ordered  regiments  of 
the  Red  Army  march  past  with  flying  colors, 
but  when,  after  the  October  days,  this  very 
man  had,  in  his  quality  of  president  of  the 
revolutionary     military     commission,     to    try 


80  THE  NEW  POLICIES 

and  beat  off  an  attack  of  Kerensky's  troops 
on  Petersburg,  the  task  seemed  a  thing  tran- 
scending all  imagination.  And  yet,  it  was 
done.  Of  course,  not  owing  to  any  military 
experience  of  Trotzky — which  he  could  not 
possibly  have  at  the  time — but  in  the  first 
place  because  numerous  contingents  of  rev- 
olutionary soldiers  proved  willing  to  march 
against  the  enemy,  and  the  adversary's  troops 
were  averse  to  meeting  them  in  a  serious  fight. 

What  proved  the  most  difficult  thing  at  the 
time  was  to  find  a  worker  who  dared  to  take 
upon  himself  the  control  of  the  totally  dis- 
organized food-distribution ;  but  among  Rus- 
sian communists  the  rule  is,  that  when  the 
comrades  declare  a  man  fit  he  considers  the 
question  settled. 

It  is  not  to  be  wondered  at,  truly,  that  the 
bourgeoisie  and  the  intellectuals  were  abso- 
lutely convinced  that  this  condition  could  not 
last  for  a  fortnight :  our  own  friends  had  only 
the  vaguest  of  ideas  about  how  they  were  to 
manage.  But  the  workers  and  peasants  saw 
there  was  no  other  way  out,  and  they  went  on, 
undaunted  by  temporary  difficulties,  tempor- 
ary misery,  undaunted  even  by  the  doubts  that 


OF  SOVIET  RUSSIA  81 

beset  many  who  came  into  immediate  touch 
with  the  all  but  insuperable  organizational 
difficulties.  Here,  it  was  the  masses  that 
wrought  the  wonder,  and  the  chief  merit  of 
the  handful  of  intellectual  leaders  was  cer- 
tainly this,  that  they  never  allowed  themselves 
to  be  discouraged,  that  they  continued  to  trust 
in  the  triumph  of  methods  which,  judged  by 
the  standard  of  the  bourgeois  intellectual, 
seemed  hopeless. 

The  prediction  of  a  rapid  and  total  collapse 
of  bolshevism  was  not  fulfilled.  The  much- 
wondering  saboteurs  were  compelled  to  come 
back  and  beg  for  work,  lest  they  should  starve. 
But  the  distrust  they  had  aroused  among  the 
workers  for  a  long  time  still  continued  to 
make  felt  its  salutary  after-effects. 

Compare  with  this  the  history  of  the  Hun- 
garian Soviet-Republic,  fraternal  co-operation 
between  Social-patriots  and  Communists  in  a 
conquest  of  power  at  which  no  blood  was 
shed;  high-sounding  declarations  of  engineers 
and  intellectuals,  who  put  themselves  at  the 
service  of  the  Soviet-administration  in  order 
to  co-operate  in  the  reconstruction.  Result: 
extensive  corruption  from  the  outset,  an  or- 


82  THE  NEW  POLICIES 

ganization  of  industry  in  which  the  workers 
have  practically  no  word,  systematic  treason 
committed,  together  with  the  old  leaders  of 
the  trade-unions  and  the  representatives  of 
the  Entente,  and,  in  the  end,  surrender  and 
the  tolerating  of  a  most  bestial  system  of 
white  terror. 

We  leave  out  of  discussion  the  question 
whether  the  Hungarian  Soviet  Republic 
would,  without  the  help  of  Russia,  have  been 
able  to  maintain  itself  as  a  purely  proletarian 
organization  against  the  united  attacks  of  its 
enemies,  under  the  leadership  of  the  Western 
democracies;  but  the  manner  in  which  the 
Soviet-dictatorship  arose  and  fell,  is,  in  itself, 
most  instructive. 

And  when  now  and  again  it  is  rumored  that 
in  Germany  large  groups  of  intellectuals  are 
in  favour  of  Soviets,  that  manufacturers  are 
perfectly  willing  to  continue  business  on  a 
new  basis,  and  even  army  officers  are  inter- 
ested in  Bolshevism,  this  is  sign  of  a  danger, 
that  should  not  be  underrated. 

It  had  often  been  said:  in  the  countries  of 
Western  Europe  it  is  difficult  for  the  workers 
to    conquer    the    power    over    well-organized 


OF  SOVIET  RUSSIA  83 

capital,  but  once  they  have  the  power,  the  con- 
struction of  a  new  society  will  be  a  much 
easier  thing.  This  verdict  is  mainly  based 
upon  the  consideration  that  the  great  number 
of  intellectuals  and  "educated''  workers  will 
strengthen  the  communistic  organization. 
And  this  illusion  is  cherished,  although  we 
see,  even  now,  that  the  best  educated  groups 
of  workers  are,  and  necessarily  must  be,  the 
most  reactionary  and  the  most  bourgeois,  not 
to  mention  the  intellectuals.  For  the  recon- 
struction of  a  society  based  on  new  principles, 
men  are  looked  to  as  leaders  who  at  this  mo- 
ment, as  chiefs  of  parties  and  as  trade-union 
officials,  sell  and  betray  the  workers. 

It  is,  perhaps,  unavoidable,  that  men  like 
these  should  once  more  deceive  the  workers, 
that  production  should  once  more  have  to  be 
based  upon  new  bureaucratic  foundations ;  but 
this  much  is  evident,  that  the  workers  will 
weather  these  dangers  the  better,  the  less  they 
suffer  themselves  to  be  deceived  by  illusions. 

In  Russia,  both  the  inexorable  policy  of  the 
party,  unswervingly  true  to  principle,  and  the 
attitude  of  the  intellectuals  themselves,  threw 
back  the  workers  upon  their  own  resources; 


84  THE  NEW  POLICIES 

and  this  indubitably,  accounts  for  the  success 
of  the  Revolution.  What,  now,  were  the  sub- 
sequent developments? 

The  intellectuals,  as  we  saw,  made  haste  to 
retrace  their  steps  and  proffer  their  services, 
which  have  been  accepted.  But  their  co- 
operation was  far  from  being  a  cordial  one, 
and  covert  opposition,  or,  at  least,  absolute 
deficiency  of  co-operation  was  a  general  phe- 
nomenon. 

My  work  in  Soviet  Russia  brought  me  into 
frequent  contact  with  engineers  in  the  em- 
ploy of  the  Soviet  organization  for  Public 
Works.  Under  this  come  all  new  construc- 
tion, the  building  of  roads  and  bridges,  of 
new  railway  lines,  canals,  systems  of  irriga- 
tion, draining,  etc.,  an  immense  field  of  labor, 
and  in  which  a  number  of  problems  arose  that 
could  not  fail  to  attract  engineers  at  all  in- 
terested in  their  work.  Without  going  into  de- 
tails, this  much  may  be  said,  that  the  radical 
alterations  in  the  whole  of  the  economic  sys- 
tem brought  new  problems  to  the  fore  and 
gave  to  old  problems  a  shape  entirely  new. 
It  was,  for  instance,  necessary  to  transfer  in- 
dustries, to  exploit  new   resources,   to  solve 


OF  SOVIET  RUSSIA  85 

the  problems  of  communication  and  distribu- 
tion according  to  a  new  and  more  rational 
point  of  view,  or  at  least,  to  prepare  a  solution 
for  the  future,  etc.  Moreover,  in  the  planning 
and  the  execution  of  new  works  everything 
had  to  be  put  upon  a  new  basis.  The  cost  of 
all  raw  materials,  of  machines  and  of  human 
labor  underwent,  of  course,  a  radical  change, 
in  their  relation  to  one  another,  as  in  other 
respects ;  in  consequence,  in  similar  cases  dif- 
ferent materials  and  different  methods  had 
to  be  employed  in  order  to  obtain  the  best 
results.  All  this,  one  would  expect,  would 
have  the  attraction  of  pioneers'  work.  One 
would  expect  a  certain  enthusiasm  if  only  for 
the  sake  of  the  technical  importance  of  the 
thing — the  enthusiasm  of  the  engineer  who 
has  to  execute  a  great  work  in  a  region  not 
yet  opened  up. 

But  it  did  not  appeal  to  the  bourgeois  en- 
gineers of  Russia. 

Although,  as  early  as  at  the  first  General 
Congress  of  Economic  Councils,  the  Commun- 
ists proposed  and  discussed  a  number  of  new 
technical  economic  problems,  no  sign  of  in- 
terest was  forthcoming  from  engineering  cir- 


86  THE  NEW  POLICIES 

cles,  much  less  any  partial  solution  of  these 
vital  problems.  My  experience  was  gathered 
more  especially  in  the  department  for  water- 
works, where  very  little  was  done  by  a  num- 
ber of  engineers  of  acknowledged  practical 
ability,  and  who  in  matters  of  theory  were  in 
no  way  inferior  to  their  Western  colleagues. 
In  the  extensive  Moscow  bureaux  old  pro- 
jects, approved  in  the  main  by  the  previous 
Government,  were  elaborated  and  discussed 
on  the  basis  of  the  condition  of  the  past.  Of 
new  points  of  view,  resulting  from  the  radical 
change  in  circumstances,  but  very  little  was 
to  be  seen. 

And  yet,  it  had  repeatedly  been  pointed 
out,  not  only  at  congresses,  but  in  the  com- 
munist press,  that  a  great  number  of  problems 
would  necessarily  undergo  great  changes,  be- 
cause of  the  fact  that,  instead  of  private  profit 
as  hitherto,  public  interest  was  to  be  the  basis 
of  all  enterprise.  The  iron  industry,  for  in- 
stance, would  in  great  part  have  to  be  cen- 
tralized in  localities  where  ore  and  coal  are 
easily  accessible;  other  industries,  by  syste- 
matic decentralization,  would  have  to  link  up 
with  agriculture;  the  entire  problem  of  dis- 


OF  SOVIET  RUSSIA  87 

tribution  assumed  a  new  aspect.  The  means 
of  transport  were  involved  to  a  considerable 
extent.  Not  only  was  a  rational  railroad 
system  an  absolute  necessity,  as  well  as  utili- 
zation to  the  full  of  the  extremely  favorable 
opportunities  of  an  extensive  system  of  trans- 
port by  water,  but  in  the  new  system,  the 
rivalry  between  railroads  and  water-roads 
would  be  done  away  with,  and  they  would  be- 
come one  another's  complement.  To  confine 
myself  to  the  waterways.  Any  one  must  see 
what  an  extraordinary  development  of  possi- 
bilities arose  now  that  the  entire  fleet  of  river 
and  canal-boats  was  brought  under  one  man- 
agement, and  the  ceaseless  conflicts  of  numer- 
ous private  interests  being  done  away  with, 
a  rational  organization  of  the  inland  shipping- 
trade,  such  as  of  the  railway  service  in  other 
countries,  was  rendered  possible  . 

Besides,  for  a  number  of  general  problems, 
the  new  conditions  had  to  be  decisive  for  all 
technical  details.  The  choice  of  materials,  of 
working  methods,  the  determination  of  the 
order  in  which  various  works  were  to  be  exe- 
cuted, absolutely  everything  would  have  to  be 
examined  anew,  according  to  the  altered  cir- 


88  THE  NEW  POLICIES 

cumstances.  To  mention  only  the  most  im- 
portant of  these:  ground-rent  and  interest  on 
capital  were  no  more,  the  output  of  labor  had 
changed,  the  relation  between  machine  labor 
and  hand  labor,  between  the  direction  and  the 
execution  of  a  work,  had  altered. 

Of  course,  all  these  problems  did  not  at 
once  make  themselves  felt  in  their  full  sig- 
nificance ;  and,  it  need  hardly  be  said,  circum- 
stances were,  for  the  time  being,  most  un- 
favorable for  the  execution  of  important 
works.  But  so  absolute  a  lack  of  compre- 
hension and  of  interest  as  was  evinced  by  the 
engineers  "of  the  old  guard",  is  extremely 
significant.  As  in  so  many  other  provinces  of 
mental  activity,  so  in  this,  leaving  aside,  of 
course,  a  few  favorable  exceptions,  listless- 
ness  and  reluctance  were  the  characteristics 
of  bourgeois  intellect.  Plainly,  the  intellect- 
tual  middle  class,  inasmuch  as  it  failed  to  as- 
similate the  communistic  ideals,  was  of  but 
very  slight  value  for  the  establishing  of  the 
new  society,  that  is  founded  on  labor. 

A  comparison  between  the  brisk  and  ener- 
getic life  among  the  masses  of  the  workers, 
where  every  problem  aroused  the  keenest  in- 


OF  SOVIET  RUSSIA  89 

terest  and  raised  endless  discussions,  and  the 
torpid  apathy  prevalent  in  the  engineers' 
offices,  makes  it  evident  that  these  latter  were 
incapable  of  fulfilling  any  but  a  subordinate 
and  more  or  less  mechanical  part  in  the  build- 
ing up  of  the  new  system  of  production. 

And  yet  the  Soviet  took  a  great  deal  of 
trouble  to  meet  the  wishes  of  intellectuals  and 
engineers.  Technical  and  intellectual  work 
was  highly  appreciated,  and  this  appreciation, 
which  was  also  expressed  in  the  shape  of  high 
salaries,  was  transferred  to  the  representatives 
of  capitalistic  intellect.  But  these  gentlemen 
did  not  feel  at  home  under  a  workers'  dic- 
tatorship. For  not  only  was  the  petty-bour- 
geois way  of  life  which  they  loved,  threatened 
— as  must  be  the  case  especially  in  a  tran- 
sitional period  when  impoverishment  is  gen- 
eral— by  such  measures  as  house-distribution, 
and  by  the  absence  of  all  sort  of  comfort  and 
luxury;  but,  a  thing  which  they  felt  even 
deeper,  the  new  system  attacked  their  position 
as  monopolists  in  the  control  of  intellectual 
social  Ufe  and  the  processes  of  production. 
Under  this  system,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  knowl- 
edge of  the  ancient  kind,  based  as  it  is  on  an 


90  THE  NEW  POLICIES 

experience  of  things  past  and  gone,  becomes, 
practically,  or  in  part  at  least,  worthless.  In 
consequence,  the  intellectual  loses  his  self- 
reliance;  the  more  because  he  sees  that  his 
individual  case  is  becoming  the  general  rule, 
and  society  as  a  whole  is  fast  losing  its  faith 
in  old-time  customs,  truths  and  traditions. 

The  workers  demand  that  account  be  ren- 
dered to  them ;  they  demand  an  equal  share  of 
authority,  they  demand  tangible  results.  And, 
naturally,  they  are  as  yet,  lacking  in  the  ex- 
perience, the  knowledge  and  the  insight  need- 
ed for  the  formation  of  a  correct  judgment  in 
matters  which  often  are  exceedingly  compli- 
cated. The  intellectual,  in  consequence,  im- 
agines himself  to  be  indispensable;  he  thinks 
he  need  but  assume  an  attitude  of  waiting; 
that  in  one  form  or  another  former  conditions 
are  sure  to  return,  and  therewith,  the  import- 
ance of  his  role.  Only,  in  the  meantime,  he 
feels  superfluous  and  therefore  is  depressed. 

An  engineer  who  complained  to  me  of  the 
cold  in  the  unheated  bureau,  and  other  incon- 
veniences of  the  kind,  grave  enough  certainly, 
added:  "But  the  worst  of  all  is — we  are 
bored!"     This  enforced  inactivity  of  course, 


OF  SOVIET  RUSSIA  91 

did  not  prevent  him  from  pocketing  a  salary 
higher  than  that  of  a  People's  Commissary, 
who  works  sixteen  hours  a  day  that  he  may, 
to  the  best  of  his  ability,  solve  the  new  prob- 
lems cropping  up  in  all  directions. 

As  we  have  stated,  the  intellectuals,  gen- 
erally speaking,  offered  their  services  to  the 
Soviets  for  material  considerations  only,  and 
this,  as  a  rule,  without  any  enthusiasm.  In 
the  central  bureaux,  where  the  general  control 
is  exercised,  results,  as  we  saw,  were  most 
unsatisfactory.  Control  by  workers'  commit- 
tees is  difficult,  especially  in  cases  where  the 
necessary  preparation  is  lacking.  In  the 
building  works  and  in  the  factories  conditions 
are,  of  course,  better.  The  most  urgent  work 
at  least  is  done,  because  the  need  of  the  day 
compels  the  doing  of  it,  and  a  control  by  the 
workers  is  more  feasible  here. 

From  my  inspecting-tours  in  the  provinces 
I  always  returned  in  a  hopeful  mood.  In  the 
smaller  units  better  work  was  done,  there  was 
more  organization  there,  more  enthusiasm, 
more  sense  of  the  new  than  among  the  gen- 
erality of  the  officials  in  the  great  bureaux  of 
Moscow.       In   Moscow   too,   it   is   true,   en- 


93  THE  NEW  POLICIES 

deavors  were  made  to  make  workers  take  a 
part  in  bureau-work;  but  whilst  discharging 
this  unaccustomed  task  they,  in  many  cases, 
soon  grew  subject  to  the  influence  of  the  sur- 
roundings, and  the  new  bureaucratic  elements 
are  not  less  of  a  danger  to  the  success  of  So- 
viet organization  than  the  old  were. 

Those  who  foster  exaggerated  expectations 
about  the  substitution  of  new  independent  or 
even  communistic  leaders  for  the  old  bureau- 
cratic trade-union  officials,  may  take  warning 
by  the  fact  that  in  Russia  as  in  Hungary  cor- 
ruption was  rife  among  the  new  bureaucrats 
as  among  the  old.  These  results  are  produced 
by  the  system,  not  by  the  individuals.  And 
the  chances  are  that  this  danger  will  increase. 

As  the  stability  of  the  Soviet  regime  grew 
more  and  more  manifest,  the  number  of 
bourgeois  intellectuals  who  offered  their  ser- 
vices increased,  and  the  bureaucratic  element 
was  strengthened.  The  submission  of  the  in- 
tellect was  greatly  rejoiced  over,  and  great  ex- 
pectations were  cherished  as  to  the  results  of 
this  co-operation.  But  unless  the  workers 
ever  and  again  break  up  this  bureaucratic  ap- 
paratus, pushing  "from  the  bottom  upwards", 


OF  SOVIET  RUSSIA  93 

it  is  doomed  to  petrify,  and  to  become  a  new 
instrument  of  oppression.  Against  this  con- 
tingency even  the  Soviet-form,  offers  no  guar- 
antee if  it  ceases  to  be  a  living  organism,  based 
upon  the  active  zvill  of  the  mass  of  the  work- 
ers. 

It  is,  therefore,  a  matter  of  the  very  great- 
est importance  that  the  trade-union  movement 
in  the  shape  of  industrial  organization  shall  be 
kept  intact,  even  after  the  proletarian  revolu- 
tion, as  in  this  the  proletarian  character  is 
preserved  better  than  in  the  Soviet  organiza- 
tion, which,  on  account  of  the  participation  of 
peasants,  intellectuals  and  intermediate  groups 
as  well  as  by  reason  of  its  specific  functions  of 
general  administration  and  control,  is  more 
exposed  to  the  danger  of  bureaucratization. 
In  Russia  this  danger  has  been  very  plainly 
revealed,  and  the  Communists  fight  it  to  the 
uttermost.  The  special  peril  lies  in  the  in- 
voluntary alliance  of  the  old  bureaucracy  with 
the  new,  in  consequence  of  which  many  orig- 
inally sincere  revolutionaries  gradually  degen- 
erate into  bourgeois. 

This  is  what  the  workers'  masses  and  the 
communists  must,  from  the  start,  oppose  with 


94  THE  NEW  POLICIES 

all  their  strength ;  always  and  everywhere  they 
must  demand  the  largest  measure  possible  of 
control  by  the  workers  themselves.  It  is  a 
question  of  self-reliance  and  courage,  and  of 
being  prepared  to  temporarily  sacrifice  tech- 
nical perfection  and  higher  productivity 
rather  than  give  up  control.  The  more  firmly 
resolved  the  workers  show  themselves  to  do 
without  the  help  of  bourgeois  intellectuals,  if 
necessary,  the  more  eager  the  latter  will  be  to 
proffer  their  services.  For,  when  all  is  said, 
the  decline  of  productive  capacity  under  a  con- 
sistent regime  of  workers'  dictatorship  in  the 
first  place  affects  those  who  are  accustomed  to 
a  higher  standard  of  living. 

Here,  however,  we  are  confronted  with  one 
of  those  seemingly  insuperable  difficulties  for 
which  only  a  revolutionary  development  pro- 
vides a  solution.  It  is  the  same  as  with  the 
productivity  of  industrial  labor,  which  de- 
clines when  food  is  insufficient,  while  an  in- 
crease of  the  food-production  is  possible  only 
when  the  productivity  of  industrial  labor  in- 
creases. Similarly,  control  of  the  intellec- 
tuals by  the  workers  is  necessary  in  the  very 
first  place;  but  for  this  a  degree  of  culture  is 


OF  SOVIET  RUSSIA  95 

required  the  monopoly  of  which  is  provision- 
ally, held  by  the  intellectuals.  For  education 
too  is,  necessarily,  in  the  hands  of  the  intel- 
lectual bourgeois  middle-class. 

NEW  METHODS  OF  PROLETARIAN 
EDUCATION. 

Small  wonder  the  Workers'  Republic 
should  proclaim  entirely  novel  principles  in 
the  province  of  education  also,  and  that  they 
should  give  the  most  assiduous  attention  to 
school  matters  and  to  the  education  of  the 
new  generation! 

And,  again,  experience  demonstrates,  in 
Russia,  that  the  workers  cannot  rely  on  bour- 
geois intellect  in  this  matter.  The  Workers' 
Unity  School  suffers  severely  from  the  lack 
of  sympathetic  insight  and  co-operation 
among  the  old-time  teachers.  It  is  worthy  of 
remark,  too,  that  the  higher  the  grade  of  these 
teachers,  the  more  disappointing  the  results. 
Among  the  teachers  of  the  elementary  school 
for  children  of  seven  to  fourteen,  a  certain 
number  were  found  more  or  less  able  to  cope 
with  the  new  task;  but  the  masters  of  the 


96  THE  NEW  POLICIES 

higher  schools  with  few  exceptions  proved  ab- 
solutely unfit;  and  in  the  matter  of  the  re- 
organization of  university  teaching  hardly 
anything  has  been  effected,  if  one  excepts  the 
fact  that  the  universities  now  are  open  to  all 
— a  thing  of  small  moment  in  a  revolutionary 
period,  and  to  the  workers  who  have  better 
things  to  do  than  to  listen  to  old-time  learning. 

But  even  for  the  lower  grade  of  the  work- 
ers' unity-school,  the  best  teachers  often  prove 
to  be  workers  trained  in  a  course  of  a  year, 
sometimes  even  of  only  half  a  year  duration. 
At  the  Moscow  training  school  for  teachers, 
workers  as  well  as  teachers,  were  trained  for 
teaching  at  the  unity-school ;  and  the  results 
with  the  workers  were  more  satisfactory.  The 
teachers  on  the  contrary  for  a  long  time  con- 
tinued to  form  an  exceedingly  reactionary 
group,  and  of  the  far-reaching  plans  for  re- 
organization of  the  schools  of  the  second 
grade,  very  little  could  be  realized  in  every- 
day practice. 

It  is  not  only  lack  of  sympathy  and  zeal 
that  is  at  the  bottom  of  this  trouble  in  the 
matter  of  education  as  in  others,  but  even 
more  lack  of  understanding  and  imagination. 


OF  SOVIET  RUSSIA  97 

Precisely  because  development  has  been  along 
definite  lines,  a  breaking  with  the  past  is  ex- 
ceedingly difficult.  That  is  the  reason  why 
the  new  ideas  and  methods  are  elaborated  and 
advocated  in  workers'  periodicals  and  papers, 
and  institutions  often  far  removed  from 
teaching  circles,  although  of  course  they  are 
vigorously  supported  by  groups  of  commun- 
ist teachers,  which,  during  the  revolution, 
gradually  increased. 

It  is,  for  the  rest,  easy  enough  to  under- 
stand, that  just  as  an  engineer  tied  to  formulas 
and  rusty  experiences  cannot  adapt  himself  to 
the  new  life,  so  a  dry  formalistic,  priggish 
and,  in  school,  omnipotent  school  master  feels 
miserable  within  the  workers'  system  of 
education. 

He  is  altogether  helpless  and  at  a  loss  when 
venturing  upon  even  the  very  simplest  and 
most  primitive  attempts  in  the  direction  of  the 
new  ideal.  He  knows  nothing  about  handi- 
craft and  the  different  kinds  of  material.  For 
direct  work,  in  doing  which  the  children  are 
free  to  move  about,  and  exercise  a  certain 
measure  of  initiative,  is  a  very  different  thing 
from  standing  in  front  of  a  class  where  the 


98  THE  NEW  POLICIES 

children  are  nailed  fast  to  the  benches,  half 
dazed  with  monotonous  drudgery.  If  we  de- 
sired a  kind  of  systematic  higher  kindergar- 
ten-teaching according  to  a  method  set  down 
in  a  convenient  handbook,  and  aided  with  all 
manner  of  technically  perfect  appliances  and 
silly  models  in  glass  cases, — well,  that  might 
at  a  pinch  be  put  up  with  by  the  schoolmaster. 
But  these  workers  want  everything  to  link  up 
with  practical  life:  they  want  really  useful 
things  made,  clothes  and  shoes  repaired,  ob- 
jects mended  that  the  children  bring  with  them 
from  home,  the  schoolroom  and  the  furniture 
kept  clean,  help  given  with  the  laying  of  the 
wires  for  the  supply  of  electric  light,  with 
the  cooking  of  the  food,  etc.,  etc.  And  all 
this  as  a  starting-point  for  the  imparting  of 
knowledge  and  ideas  necessary  in  everyday 
life. 

It  really  requires  courage  to  select  for  this 
task  out  of  all  the  elements  inherited  from 
oldtime  society,  precisely  the  most  unpractical 
people,  the  teachers  ever  so  far  removed  from 
real  life.  A  "certificated"  teacher  in  front  of 
a  class  of  the  unity-school  is  as  great  a  risk 
as  a  czarist  officer  at  the  head  of  a  division  of 


OF  SOVIET  RUSSIA  99 

the  red  army.  Both  should  be  closely  watched 
by  the  workers. 

And  so  far  we  have  considered  the  most 
primitive  form  of  the  labor  unity-school  only. 
But  what  must  be  the  average  schoolmaster's 
feelings  in  the  model  training-school  of  our 
enthusiastic  comrade  Levitine! 

Writing,  arithmetic,  geography,  history,  all 
of  the  evil  past.  Throw  the  old  litter  and  the 
old  books  on  the  scrap  heap ! 

Here  we  are  going  to  make  something, 
never  mind  what,  say  a  wooden  spoon  to  eat 
our  dinner  with.  In  the  school-garden  we  se- 
lect a  tree  to  fell.  Not  all  trees  are  equally 
fit  for  the  purpose!  In  felling  the  tree  we 
have  to  consider  several  important  questions. 
and  the  laws  of  equilibrium  cannot  be  neg- 
lected with  impunity.  There,  the  monster  lies 
prone ;  and  having  first  seen  to  it  that  our  tool 
is  fit,  which  again  causes  many  important 
question  to  arise,  we  begin  sawing.  That  is 
great  fun!  Sawing  by  turns,  two  together, 
whilst  the  others  sing  or  count.  In  the  be- 
ginning it  goes  quickly,  but  the  cut  widens, 
and  it  gets  to  be  quite  a  problem  to  make  out 
whether  every  couple  of  sawers  does  an  equal 


100  THE  NEW  POLICIES 

amount  of  work.  Suddenly  there  is  a  stop- 
page. The  strongest  boys  try  their  strength 
in  vain.  A  clever  fellow  discovers  what  is  the 
matter ;  the  saw  had  got  stuck,  the  tree  bends 
with  its  own  weight.  Quite  a  series  of  new 
problems  arises.  What  is  to  be  done  now? 
We  will  have  to  lift  the  tree,  but  we  are  not 
strong  enough  to  do  it.  How  strong  would 
we  have  to  be?  And  here  we  learn  naturally 
the  computation  of  cubic  content,  computation 
of  weight,  specific  gravity  of  wood.  We  are 
measuring,  weighing,  ciphering,  before  we 
know,  there  is  practical  reason  and  use  in 
what  we  learn.  The  youngest  child  can  feel 
that. 

Then  comes  the  mystery  of  the  lever,  the 
wonder  of  success.  In  the  meantime  the 
teacher  has  found  occasion  to  tell  things  worth 
knowing  about  the  branches  and  the  leaves 
and  about  other  trees  and  other  methods  of 
working.  And  the  children  make  sketches  of 
all  the  tools,  the  axe,  saw,  etc.  They  note  di- 
mensions, qualities,  differences  in  kind.  They 
handle  iron,  stone,  willow-wood,  ash-wood. 
Of  the  different  kinds  of  wood  pieces  of  an 
equal  size  are  weighed  or  pieces  of  an  equal 


OF  SOVIET  RUSSIA  101 

weight  are  measured,  and  calculation  is  set 
going  once  more. 

To  conclude,  the  older  pupils  send  in  a  writ- 
ten report  of  all  their  experiences  gathered 
during  the  work ;  the  best  descriptions  are 
read  out  to  the  class  and  supplemented.  And 
everything  must  be  systematically  arranged, 
and  written  out  neatly  and  plainly,  with 
sketches  and  calculations.  How  good  the 
porridge  will  taste  that  is  eaten  with  that 
spoon !  what  memories,  what  pleasure,  what 
pride! 

But  the  model-school  offers  a  great  many 
possibilities :  there  is  the  vegetable-garden  and 
the  flower-garden,  the  tree-nursery,  ponds  and 
water-supply,  a  loom,  a  printing  plant,  a  car- 
penter's workshop,  an  engineer's  workshop,  a 
photograph  studio,  etc,  Such  is  the  equip- 
ment of  a  model  school. 

Still  all  these  many  appliances  may  very 
well  be  dispensed  with.  Every  kind  of  work 
affords  opportunities  for  teaching.  Any  sort 
of  material  will  open  up  perspectives  of  geog- 
raphy, history,  physical  science.  All  occupa- 
tions require  counting,  weighing,  measur- 
ing,   writing,    singing.     But    a     far     greater 


102  THE  NEW  POLICIES 

amount  of  real  knowledge  than  a  teacher  of 
the  old  stamp  possesses  is  required  for  this. 
Moreover  his  old-time  knowledge  is  practically 
of  no  value,  and  he  has  to  begin  over  again. 

For  a  working  man  of  a  certain  degree  of 
general  culture  and  a  modicum  of  imagination, 
the  contrary  is  true.  The  new  method  is 
something  like  a  revelation.  He  sees  new 
perspectives  opening,  he  is  surprised  and  de- 
lighted to  perceive  what  a  multitude  of  mean- 
ings is  revealed  by  the  very  simplest  kind  of 
work,  once  one  develops  a  habit  of  inquiring 
into  the  connection  of  things,  and  of  satisfying 
the  natural  craving  for  knowledge  and  in- 
sight instead  of  thwarting  it.  For  him,  the 
model-school  is  a  true  academy,  an  introduc- 
tion into  a,  new  field  of  labor,  not  the  com- 
pletion of  an  earlier  education.  He  will  not 
be  distressed  at  his  pupils  putting  questions  to 
him  which  he  is  not  able  to  answer  off-hand ; 
not  only  the  distinction  between  learning  and 
working,  but  up  to  a  certain  degree  the  dis- 
tinction between  teacher  and  pupil  by  and  by 
is  obliterated  for  him.  And  where  his  own 
imagination     might     fail,    the    many-headed 


OF  SOVIET  RUSSIA  103 

imagination  of  his  class  will  prove  an  inex- 
haustible resource. 

A  certain  degree  of  systematization  will 
certainly  be  required  in  the  long  run,  and  this 
is  what  is  being  attempted,  account  being  kept 
of  the  teachings  of  experience.  It  may  lead 
to  more  rapid  results  in  the  direction  of  a 
culture  as  many-sided  as  may  prove  possible 
(polytechnic  culture).  But  even  in  the  ab- 
sence of  a  strict  system,  relying  solely  on  the 
haphazard  of  arbitrary  selections  out  of  the 
infinite  riches  of  living  reality,  this  method 
will  lead  to  surprising  results.  Once  a  pupil 
has  learned  the  art  of  tackling  a  problem,  of 
gaining  an  insight  into  its  meaning,  of  inves- 
tigating and  of  conquering  difficulties,  he  has 
gained  all  that  is  necessary  to  prepare  him  for 
life.  For  concrete  knowledge  is  necessarily 
limited  within  narrow  bounds ;  while  in  any 
special  case  it  may  be  supplemented  and  ex- 
tended without  great  difficulty. 

However,  the  teachers  of  course  must  pos- 
sess a  certain  degree  of  general  culture  and  of 
imagination,  besides  possessing  knowledge  of 
the  execution  of  work  of  certain  kinds.  For 
a  bourgeois  intellectual  this    is    not  a  simple 


104  THE  NEW  POLICIES 

matter.  Even  the  usual  school-experiments 
attempted  by  our  teachers  in  physical  science, 
with  the  aid  of  an  assistant  and  with  perfect 
instruments,  beautifully  polished,  often  failed 
in  the  most  miserable  manner. 

It  is  easy  enough  to  prescribe  that  when  in 
the  process  of  some  work  a  fire  is  needed,  the 
class  be  shown  in  what  way  our  ancestors 
used  to  make  fire.  But  it  is  not  so  easy  to 
manufacture  the  little  contrivance,  by  which 
fire  is  made  by  friction,  and  to  really  make 
fire  with  it.  But  if  this  is  achieved  with  the 
aid  of  simple  appHances  and  not  with  model- 
instruments  bought  in  a  shop,  it  will  not  harm 
the  class  to  learn  by  experience  what  a  deal  of 
painstaking  and  thought  goes  to  the  making 
of  a  real  thing.  The  making  of  fire  too  re- 
quires considerable  exertion.  In  the  model- 
school  it  was  done  in  this  way.  And  it  was  a 
good  object-lesson  in  history,  geography,  phy- 
sical science  and  arithmetic,  that  ended  in  a 
calculation  of  the  time  and  labor  saved  at 
present  by  the  use  of  matches,  by  one  person 
in  a  day,  in  a  year,  in  a  life-time;  and,  again, 
for  all  the  town,  all  the  country,  all  Europe 
in  an  hour,  a  day,  a  year. 


OF  SOVIET  RUSSIA  105 

It  is  true  that  for  this  one  had  to  know  the 
population  figures  of  the  country  and  of 
Europe,  but  as  a  matter  of  course  one  goes 
to  a  handbook  for  information  of  the  kind, 
and  the  teacher  need  not  be  ashamed  if  he 
does  so.  Moreover  the  pupil  who  joins  in 
similar  experiments  and  calculations,  and 
sends  in  a  report,  has  a  far  better  chance  of 
remembering  the  figures  than  the  victims  of 
the  present  system,  who  learn  by  rote  long 
series  of  figures  for  the  next  examination. 

There  may,  possibly,  be  some  use  in 
plaguing  our  fourteen-year-old  children  with 
elaborate  geometrical  artificialities  that  have 
no  conceivable  relation  to  reality ;  it  may  be, 
as  it  is  argued,  that  this  is  a  form  of  gymn- 
astics of  the  brain ;  but  the  mental  agility  at- 
tained by  this  method  may  be  gained  in  a  more 
pleasant  manner  by  the  solving  of  riddles  and 
the  telling  of  anecdotes.  And  as  for  the 
knowledge  of  geometry  and  surveying  a  great 
deal  more  will  be  gained  by  the  measuring  of 
buildings  and  sites,  complemented  by  the  de- 
termining of  superficial  contents  and  weight 
of  objects  and  of  position  in  respect  to  the  sun 
and  the  stars. 


106  THE  NEW  POLICIES 

But  if  one  then  thinks  of  the  schoolmast- 
ers of  this  present  day,  the  absolute  unfitness 
of  the  bourgeois  intellect  for  the  new  society, 
the  necessity  that  this  entire  generation  of  in- 
tellectuals should  disappear  in  the  transitional 
process  of  the  dictatorship  of  the  proletariat, 
becomes  evident.  The  annihilation  must  be 
definite,  for  the  type  cannot  be  tolerated  even 
in  a  modified  form.  It  is  evident  that  the 
very  notion  of  teacher,  professor,  etc.,  must 
be  obliterated.  The  ideal  can  be  approxi- 
mated only  if  all  co-operate  towards  "educa- 
tion", considering  this  as  a  natural  pq.rt  of 
their  daily  work. 

Small  wonder  that  the  bourgeois  intellec- 
tual proves  unable  to  develop  the  new  prin- 
ciples in  education,  and  that  the  failure  should 
be  the  more  conspicuous  the  deeper  the  intel- 
lectual is  incrusted  in  bourgeois  culture.  I 
have  referred  to  the  fiasco  of  Russian  teach- 
ers in  high  schools. 

High  school  education  should  link  up  with 
the  real  labor  in  factories  and  workshops,  in 
offices  and  in  the  field,  without  the  loss  of  its 
many-sided  (polytechnic)  character,  that  is, 
without  dwindling  into  the  one-sidedness  of 


OF  SOVIET  RUSSIA  107 

a  specific  technical  education.  The  "pupils", 
too,  should  be  allowed  in  a  g-enerous  measure 
to  share  in  control,  freedom  and  initiative. 
The  purpose  to  be  effected  is  the  complete  dis- 
solution of  schools  formerly  planned  for  the 
age-limit  of  fourteen  to  eighteen,  and  the 
formation  of  free  groups  of  juveniles,  self- 
controlled  as  far  as  possible,  temporarily  con- 
ducted by  teacher  leaders,  but  developing  into  a 
vital  part  of  the  social  body,  and  participating 
with  a  production  of  their  own  in  the  general 
process  of  labor,  where  the  grown  workers 
will  have  the  leisure  and  the  degree  of  cul- 
ture necessary  to  influence  youth  by  instruc- 
tion and  general  mental  and  moral  education. 
The  thing  always  to  be  kept  in  view  is  that 
culture  should  be  general,  many-sided,  not 
subservient  to  production  as  to  its  purpose, 
but  still  promotive  of  production.  Physical 
science,  chemistry,  mechanics,  trigonometry, 
book-keeping,  geography,  history  may  be 
efficiently  taught  in  this  manner,  not  to  men- 
tion writing,  drawing  and  arithmetic.  More 
manifold  international  intercourse  by  travel 
and  migration  complemented  by  reading, 
singing  and   listening  to  lectures,   will   open 


108  THE  NEW  POLICIES 

opportunities  for  foreign  languages  and  liter- 
ature, which  for  many  reasons  will  exert  a 
most  favorable  influence.  Anyhow,  old-time 
methods  and  old-time  teachers  may  be  dis- 
pensed with,  in  this  province  also. 

For  university  education  and  science  as  such 
the  change  of  course  is  even  more  radical. 
"Undergraduates"  of  eighteen  to  twenty-five 
or  twenty-six  will  be  unthinkable  and  impos- 
sible in  a  society  based  upon  labor.  Not  only 
because  an  adult  not  performing  useful  work 
will  not  be  tolerably  safe  as  an  exception 
only,  but  because  in  future  every  human  be- 
ing possessing  sound  brains  will  both  learn 
and  teach  all  his  life,  will  both  give  and  take. 
It  is  plain  that  this  will  revolutionize  science. 
Science  too  will  link  up  directly  with  labor, 
and  in  this  way  be  released  from  its  present 
state  of  seclusion. 

Those  wishing  to  study  medicine  and  hy- 
gienics will  gather  knowledge  in  and  by  prac- 
tice under  proficient  guidance,  and  in  so  doing 
will  be  brought  into  contact  with  a  number  of 
cognate  sciences.  A  natural  differentiation 
according  to  practical  and  spiritual  character 
and  bias  automatically  sets  in.     Those  who, 


OF  SOVIET  RUSSIA  109 

by  experiment  and  investigation,  are  able  to 
open  up  or  to  prepare  for  new  points  of  view, 
or  to  apply  to  better  purpose  the  knowledge 
gained,  will  find  at  their  disposal  the  best  re- 
sources, laboratories,  appliances  and  mater- 
ials ;  but  discoveries  will  be  the  result  of  in- 
dividual exertion  much  less  than  of  an  ex- 
change of  thought  and  of  collective  research, 
in  which  new  perspectives  appear  as  the  strict 
delimitations  between  the  many  various  prov- 
inces of  science  are  done  away  with. 

It  will  prove  possible  to  find  a  common  basis 
for  branches  of  learning  seemingly  far  apart, 
to  reduce  to  unity  the  countless  disciplines  of 
our  modern  specialists,  whose  professional 
interest  induces  them  to  make  things  as  in- 
tricate, and  as  incomprehensible  to  the  out- 
sider, as  possible. 

Bourgeois  intellect  is  petrifying;  it  shares 
the  fate  of  the  capitalistic  process  of  produc- 
tion in  its  entirety.  What,  in  the  beginning, 
was  a  motive  power  of  unparalleled  energy, 
the  specialization  and  individualization  of 
science  and  art  as  of  labor,  has  already  come 
to  be  a  hindrance  to  further  development.  In 
industrial  production   finance  capital  tries   to 


no  THE  NEW  POLICIES 

overcome  difficulties  by  fusion  of  its  masses 
into  ever  larger  units,  but  with  no  other  re- 
sult than  to  cause  the  difficulties  to  develop 
into  catastrophes  which  irremediably  ruin  the 
entire  system.  In  art,  science,  culture,  a  wave 
of  nationalism  overwhelms  the  last  hopes  of 
real  unity.  For  this  means,  not  a  bond,  bind- 
ing up  into  a  larger  unity  the  several  mutually 
estranged  special  disciplines,  but  a  fetter  ab- 
solutely inimical  to  the  genius  and  essence  of 
science,  or  more  exactly,  a  noose  for  the 
strangling  of  all. 

Who  is  there  does  not  think  with  rever- 
ence and  pride  of  the  initial  period  and  the 
triumphant  evolution  of  the  natural  sciences 
and  philosophy,  of  the  conquest  of  the  world 
by  steam  and  electricity,  of  biology,  of  bac- 
teriology, and  the  investigation  of  the  won- 
ders of  the  skies  ?  Who  among  the  elder  gen- 
eration but  remembers  the  war  which  so 
fiercely  and  for  so  long  a  time,  raged  around 
Darwinism ;  but  remembers  the  beginnings  of 
the  emancipation  from  religious  dogma  as  a 
paramoimt  social  force?  What  proud  hopes 
seemed  justified  by  the  spectacle  of  this  evo- 


OF  SOVIET  RUSSIA  111 

lution  in  its  vertiginous  course!  And  how  ab- 
solutely sterile  it  all  has  already  proved! 

Dogma  reinstated  and  enthroned,  but  in  a 
throne  of  cardboard  and  plaster  instead  of 
halo-encircled  gold.  Scientific  and  technical  re- 
search intent,  principally  upon  discoveries  in 
matters  of  detail  merely.  No  great  ideas  ex- 
cept in  the  last  abstractions  of  mathematics 
and  speculative  philosophy ;  and  a  practice 
that  dooms  to  sterility  all  important  inven- 
tions. 

Even  technical  science,  Capitalisms'  fa- 
vorite child  in  the  day  of  his  power,  is  in  the 
Imperialistic  period  valued  as  a  factor  of 
annihilation  only,  and  for  the  rest  is  balked 
as  much  as  possible  in  its  creative  energies, 
because  under  Monopoly,  it  is  not  intensity  of 
production  but  the  closed  market  that  prom- 
ises the  greater  profit.  Great  technical  dis- 
coveries which  in  an  ever  augmenting  degree, 
require  the  co-operation  of  many  and  vast 
material  resources,  become  a  menace  to  ex- 
tant monopolies  and  the  capital  invested,  real 
or  fictitious,  in  them ;  and  thus,  they  are,  prac- 
tically, rendered  impossible.  The  engineer  or 
intellectual  who  achieves  practical  results  does 


112  THE  NEW  POLICIES 

so  by  dint  of  dogged  perseverance  in  a  mon- 
otonous and  strictly  specialized  labor  that 
precludes  all  contact  with  the  fullness  of  life, 
all  mutual  inspiration  resulting  from  inter- 
action v^^ith  other  branches  of  science,  art  and 
philosophy. 

The  new  communistic  society  strives  after 
unity  in  production,  unity  in  mental  Hfe,  in 
science.  In  this  direction  too  there  are  re- 
markable beginnings  in  Russia.  With  loving 
reverence  I  think  of  Professor  Bogdanof  and 
his  work. 

In  the  interest  of  the  future  of  science,  it 
is  necessary  that  the  system  of  the  specialists 
be  done  away  with;  the  bourgeois  intellectual 
class  and  its  mental  monopoly  must  be  an- 
nihilated. The  fight  of  the  workers  against  the 
bourgeois  intellectuals  as  a  class  is,  therefore, 
one  that  must  be  fought  out  to  the  bitter  end. 
It  is  part,  and,  in  fact  the  principal  part  and 
the  most  arduous  of  the  struggle  for  the  new 
communistic  society. 

It  seems  to  me  the  most  perilous  form  of 
opportunism  if  in  their  struggle  and  for  the 
building  up  of  the  new  society,  the  workers 
put  their  trust  in  the  help  of  the  bourgeois  in- 


OF  SOVIET  RUSSIA  113 

tellectuals.  Just  as  the  development  of  mass- 
action  by  which  alone  the  war  can  be  v/on,  is 
impossible  so  long  as  the  masses  trust  to  the 
activity  of  the  leaders,  so  the  building  up  of 
the  new  life  is  impossible  so  long  as  the  work- 
ers allow  intellectuals  and  bureaucrats,  even 
if  they  should  have  come  out  of  their  own 
ranks,  to  take  the  lead.  It  must  result  in  a 
complete  failure,  if  workers  listen  to  advice 
such  as  is  given  by  Karl  Radek  in  his  "Ent- 
wicklung  der  Welt-Revolution  und  die  Tak- 
tik  de  K.  P."  (Development  of  the  World- 
Revolution  and  the  tactics  of  the  Communist 
Party)  November,  1919,  to-wit,  to  so  con- 
duct their  struggle  as  to  win  over  large  groups 
of  intellectuals  to  their  side:  Radek  writes: 

"From  this  it  follows,  that  the  Communist 
Parties  from  now  on  must  exert  themselves  to 
the  utmost  to  win  over  to  the  cause  of  the 
proletariat  the  greatest  contingents  possible  of 
intellectuals".  He  argues  that  circumstances 
are  much  more  favorable  in  this  respect  in 
Western  Europe  than  in  Eastern,  more  espec- 
ially than  in  Russia.  Having  conceded  that, 
in  Russia,  the  intellectuals  as  a  class  are 
"sworn  enemies  to  the  proletarian  revolution" 


114  THE  NEW  POLICIES 

7 

and  that  the  workers  must  relentlessly  beat 
down  their  opposition,  Redak  goes  on  to  say: 
"The  situation  in  the  West  is  totally  different". 
There,  it  would  seem,  intellect  is  disappointed 
in  its  expectations  from  imperialism  and  de- 
mocracy, the  low  material  status  of  the  in- 
tellectuals drives  them  into  Communism,  etc. 

It  is  doubtless  a  fact,  that  these  and  similar 
circumstances  may  impel  a  number  of  intel- 
lectuals into  the  proletarian  ranks,  more  es- 
pecially those  who,  by  the  economic  develop- 
ment have  already  been  proletarianized  into 
mechanical  adjuncts  of  the  technical  or  bu- 
reaucratic apparatus. 

These  nethermost  layers  of  the  proletariat 
constitute,  however,  as  any  one  may  observe  in 
practice,  but  unimportant  and  most  unre- 
liable auxiliary  troops  of  the  proletarian  army. 
For  the  leadership,  and  for  the  building  up  of 
the  new  society,  the  men  wanted  are  of 
course,  precisely  those  intellectuals  who  have 
given  proof  of  experience  and  self-reliance 
also  in  bourgeois  society.  It  is  plain,  too,  that 
this  is  what  Radek  means,  when  with  a  pathos 
most  surprising  in  a  man  of  his  habit  of  mind, 
he  exclaims,  "We  would  have  to  despair  of 


OF  SOVIET  RUSSIA  115 

humanity  if  it  could  be  doubted  that  the  con- 
dition of  European  culture  must  drive  the  best 
elements  among  the  intellectuals  into  the  ranks 
of  the  world  revolution". 

That  is  why  he  demands  that  we  should 
help  the  intellectuals  to  overcome  their  last 
prejudices  and  should  make  them  our  allies. 
For  "the  intellectual  proletarians  also  belong 
to  this  people  which  is  creating  a  new  society". 
And,  finally:  "The  proletarian  dictatorship 
does  not  threaten  the  intellectuals.  As  long 
as  they  are  part  of  the  poor  and  suffering 
mass  they  can  become  a  contingent  of  the 
proletariat  organized  as  a  ruling  class. 
Whether  they  will,  depends  on  themselves,  but 
also  on  the  work  that  we  do  amongst  them". 

This  theory  assumes  the  identity  of  the 
bourgeois  intellect  and  intellect  in  the  absolute 
sense,  just  as  Kautsky  assimilates  bourgeois 
democracy  and  democracy,  but  is  unwilling  or 
unable  to  understand  that  another  than  the 
bourgeois  form  of  democracy  is  conceivable. 
The  mistake  in  the  matter  of  bourgeois  in- 
tellect is,  however,  even  more  fundamental 
and  more  dangerous  than  the  mistake  con- 
cerning bourgeois  democracy,  because  the  lat- 


116  THE  NEW  POLICIES 

ter  is  only  one  of  the  peculiar  forms  under 
which  bourgeois  intellect  attacks  the  workers. 
Proletarian  revolution  threatens  annihilation 
to  the  (bourgeois)  intellectuals  as  well  as  to 
bourgeois  democracy. 

But,  says  Radek,  "we  need  the  bourgeois  in- 
tellectuals". Certainly,  the  experience  and  the 
knowledge  of  many  generations  and  long  cen- 
turies has  accumulated  in  the  heads  of  a  small 
privileged  group.  And  we  cannot  forgo  this 
precious  heritage.  Material  wealth  too  is  in 
the  hands  of  a  small  group  and  of  this  also  we 
wish  to  save  what  save  we  may.  Opportun- 
ists and  social  traitors  Hft  up  a  voice  of  warn- 
ing: no  revolution,  no  civil  war  in  which  fac- 
tories, mines,  cities  may  be  ruined.  Gradual 
processes,  compromise,  re-establishment  of 
capitalistic  production  by  hard  work,  economy 
and  submission  to  the  capitalists  to  begin  with, 
and  subsequently  only  the  realization  of  so- 
cialism by  the  action  of  parliamentary  de- 
mocracy and  the  superiority  of  our  organiza- 
tions and  our  leaders. 

We  know  by  rote  the  cant  phrases  and  will 
not  repeat  them  here.  Communists  who  do 
not  believe  in  this  idyl,  but  are  convinced  that 


OF  SOVIET  RUSSIA  117 

it  is  the  power  and  the  organizing  capacity  of 
the  masses  that  are  the  decisive  factors,  are 
wilHng  to  poy  the  price,  and  l<now  that  it  can 
be  reduced  in  practice  only  by  perseverance  in 
the  principle.  As  Bukharin  expressed  it: 
"The  losses  represent  the  cost  of  the  revolu- 
tion, caused  by  the  change  in  the  process  of 
production,  they  are  the  direct  material  ex- 
penses of  the  civil  war :  without  such  losses 
the  transition  to  a  new  society  is  unthinkable, 
and  so,  therefore,  is  the  transition  to  the  effec- 
tive development  of  the  forces  of  production 
unthinkable  without  these  expenses". 

But,  like  the  material  losses,  the  mental  are 
inevitable,  and  a  condition  of  higher  develop- 
ment. 

Naturally,  we  will  not  needlessly  destroy 
cities  and  factories,  and  as  little  will  we  pur- 
posely waste  intellectual  values  and  energy. 
But  the  condition  of  success  is  that  we  do  not 
recoil  from  sacrificing  values  if  this  be  neces- 
sary in  order  to  attain  our  end :  the  power  and 
the  leadership  of  the  proletariat.  The  more 
resolute  the  action  of  the  working  class,  the 
lesser  the  social  and  personal  "losses"  will  be. 

This  holds  good  especially  in  the  difficult 


118  THE  NEW  POLICIES 

matter  of  the  mental  leadership.  Factories 
and  tools  can  be  expropriated,  accumulated 
knowledge  and  experience  cannot. 

The  bourgeois  intellectuals  therefore,  must 
take  part  in  the  building  up,  and  at  the  same 
time  bourgeois  intellect  must  be  defeated.  It 
is  not  to  be  wondered  at  that,  all  difficulties 
caused  by  the  lack  of  intellectual  helpers  not- 
withstanding, the  transition  should  begin  at 
an  earlier  moment,  and  in  a  more  fundamental 
manner  in  Russia  than  in  Western  Europe, 
where  bourgeois  culture  has  penetrated  so 
deep  into  the  entire  fabric  of  social  life. 

The  small  group  of  intellectuals  who  have 
openly  broken  with  bourgeois  society  and  con- 
sciously even  though,  of  course,  imperfectly, 
adapted  itself  to  the  new  conditions,  naturally 
fulfills  an  important  function  in  this  process. 

For  the  majority  of  the  intellectuals,  how- 
ever, a  greater  or  lesser  degree  of  coercion  is 
necessary,  although  of  course,  this  cannot  be 
of  a  material  kind  exclusively. 

Let  us,  for  an  example,  consider  an  ex- 
treme case:  In  the  Red  Army  tens  of  thous- 
ands of  old-regime  officers  are  employed,  and 
this  especially  in  the  higher  ranks,  in  the  gen- 


OF  SOVIET  RUSSIA  119 

eral  staff,  etc.  Of  course  treason  is  frequent, 
and  the  possibility  of  treason  must  always  be 
kept  in  view.  Together  with  every  command- 
ing officer  therefore,  a  worker  is  appointed  as 
"commissary"  to  exercise  supervision.  In 
case  of  attempted  treason  the  most  severe 
measures  are,  of  course,  taken,  and  the  com- 
missary then  has  a  great  responsibility.  Ap- 
parently his  task  is  hopeless.  As  he  has  no 
knowledge  of  strategy  worth  speaking  of,  the 
general-specialist  finds  himself  free  to  do  very 
much  as  he  likes.  And,  as  a  matter  of  fact, 
contra-revolutionary  plans  succeed  at  times, 
and  divisions  of  the  Red  Army  are  delivered 
over  to  the  enemy  by  treason. 

But,  on  the  whole,  the  system  has  proved 
efficient,  in  an  ever  augmenting  degree,  for 
the  protection  of  the  Soviet  Republic.  If  the 
commissaries  possess  sufficient  self-reliance, 
sufficient  "arrogance"  to  demand,  again  and 
again,  explanations,  and  sufficient  intelli- 
gence to  combine  data,  they  soon  gather  funda- 
mental ideas  and  a  working  knowledge  that 
can  be  extended  by  attending  discussions,  lec- 
tures, etc.  In  this  manner  a  former  hair- 
dresser's assistant  has  risen  to  the  command 


120  THE  NEW  POLICIES 

of  three  army  divisions.  This,  however,  is, 
for  the  time  being,  an  exception.  The  ma- 
jority of  proletarian  army  commanders  could 
not  be  made  to  understand  that  they  had  to 
take  care  of  themselves,  and  one  after  another 
fell. 

The  chief  peril  is  this,  that  men  who  educate 
themselves  in  this  manner  are  prone  to  be- 
come, so  to  say,  infected,  and  develop  bour- 
geois-intellectual bureaucratic  qualities. 
Therefore,  control  must  be  exercised  not  by 
individuals,  but  by  boards,  by  committees  for 
instance,  that  can  be  appointed,  recalled  and 
periodically  renewed.  In  the  army-organiza- 
tion this  involves  grave  difficulties,  and,  even 
in  Russia,  reformers  have  recoiled  from  a  con- 
sistent application  of  the  principle.  As,  how- 
ever, the  army  is  only  a  temporary  institution, 
and  in  any  case  a  body  extraneous  to  the 
workers'-state,  this  is  perhaps  comparatively 
unimportant. 

Still  the  entire  principle  of  the  Soviet  is 
based  upon  this  general  co-operation  in  exe- 
cution and  in  control,  with  a  many-sided  sys- 
tem of  committees,  in  permanent  contact  with 
the  mass  of  the  workers,  who  issue  instruc- 


OF  SOVIET  RUSSIA  Ul 

tions  and  retain  the  power  to  recall  the  per- 
sons appointed.  The  difficulties  of  controlling 
the  mental  and  technical  direction  do  not  in 
the  process  of  production  and  in  social  life 
exceed  the  average  worker's  horizon  so  far  as 
in  the  army,  but  the  dangers  in  themselves  are 
hardly  less. 

The  form  of  a  committee  evidently  is  the 
one  best  adapted  to  the  purpose ;  a  committee 
numbering  representatives  of  the  different 
categories  of  workers  in  the  building-trade 
is,  of  course,  the  proper  body  to  control  the 
actions  of  an  engineer  charged  with  the  di- 
rection of  a  great  building  work.  In  a  fac- 
tory too  it  will  often  prove  possible  to  have 
control  exercised  by  committees  without  this 
arrangement  degenerating  into  a  farce.  But 
the  workers  must  feel  very  deeply  that  it  is 
of  the  utmost  importance  they  should  not  con- 
fide this  control  to  single  individuals.  The 
temptation  is  great  to  leave  it  to  a  few  of  the 
ablest,  most  intelligent  and  most  energetic 
among  the  workers  to  so  educate  themselves 
as  to  be  fit  to  personally  assume  the  direction ; 
but  this  frequently  ends  in  their  being  ab- 
sorbed into  the  bourgeois  intellectual  class  as 


122  THE  NEW  POLICIES 

were  the  leaders  of  the  old  social-democratic 
parties,  and  of  the  old  trade-unions.  There- 
fore, the  temptation  must  be  strenuously  re- 
sisted. 

When  news  reaches  us  from  Russia  that  the 
intellectuals  g-row  more  and  more  reconciled 
to  the  Soviet  regime  and  become  enthusiastic 
co-operators  in  the  new  reconstruction,  this 
certainly  is  to  be  rejoiced  over,  as  a  proof  of 
the  increasing  power  and  stability  of  the 
Soviet  Government.  But,  on  the  other  hand, 
we  must  not  overlook  the  danger  of  a  new 
period  of  supremacy  of  the  old  and  new  bu- 
reaucracy, which  in  that  case  would  again 
have  to  be  defeated  by  the  effort  "from  the 
bottom  upwards"  of  the  masses.  Fortunate- 
ly, we  may  rest  assured,  that  very  many  of 
our  Russian  friends  are  aware  of  this  peril  and 
constantly  on  their  guard  against  it,  and  that 
they  will  fight  it,  even  though  economic  and 
technical  reconstruction  should  have  to  suffer. 

But  in  Western  Europe,  where  the  peril  is 
so  infinitely  greater,  the  problem  is,  as  yet, 
hardly  discerned.  Its  effects  made  themselves 
felt  in  the  shape  of  a  distrust  of  a  direction, 
a  direction  from  headquarters,  "from  the  top 


OF  SOVIET  RUSSIA  123 

downwards",  in  a  dislike  of  centralization, 
and  above  all,  in  a  vigorous  hatred  of  the  offi- 
cialdom of  trade-unionism  and  the  social-de- 
mocracy. But  in  general  this  attitude  is  in- 
stinctive rather  than  conscious  and  systematic, 
and  it  hardly  takes  into  account  the  real  diffi- 
culties connected  with  the  problem  of  the 
transition  and  the  reconstruction,  and  with  the 
comparative  inevitability  of  the  phenomenon. 

Centralization  is  necessary  in  modern  class- 
war  as  well  as  in  modern  production ;  in  con- 
nection with  this,  it  is  not  possible  to  avoid 
bureaucracy  from  the  start,  and  it  may  even 
again  and  again  become  necessary  to  suffer  it 
to  regain  the  ascendant;  this  would  be  the 
case  if  only  by  such  a  course  the  continuation 
of  the  class-war  or  of  production  could,  under 
certain  circumstances,  be  rendered  possible. 
But  quite  as  necessary  is  an  insight  into  the 
dangers  of  this  policy,  and  into  the  imperative 
necessity  of  defeating  bourgeois  intellect  of 
which  specialization  and  development  into  a 
separate  and  independent  existence  as  bu- 
reaucracy are  forms  of  manifestation. 

Class-war,  nay  life  itself,  sometimes  forces 
us  to   compromises.     But  the   communist   is 


124  THE  NEW  POLICIES 

justified  in  his  existence  as  such  by  his  clearer 
and  deeper  insight  into  the  truth  that  we  must 
overcome  these  compromises,  and  it  is  his 
duty  to  discern  clearly  from  the  start  the  dan- 
ger they  involve,  and  the  aim  that  lies  beyond. 
The  deeper  our  conviction  of  the  inevitability 
of  reverses  and  compromises  in  the  great  pro- 
cess of  social  growth,  the  more  inexorable 
must  be  our  exposure  and  our  attack  of  them. 
For  only  if  we  clearly  discern  and  thoroughly 
understand  the  compromise  as  a  compromise, 
as  a  defeat,  as  a  danger,  then  only  shall  we  be 
able  in  a  subsequent  period  to  overcome  it  as 
completely  as  may  prove  possible. 

In  the  matter  of  compromises  with  bour- 
geois culture,  such  as  the  accepting  of  bu- 
reaucratic forms  of  organization  and  direc- 
tion, this  attitude  is  even  more  necessary  than 
in  the  matter  of  compromises  with  the  ma- 
terial resources  of  the  bourgeois  state,  be- 
cause in  the  former  case  the  dangers  are  so 
much  more  difficult  to  discern  and  the  process 
of  overcoming  them  more  lengthy. 

This,  too,  is  what  determines  our  attitude 
towards  the  intellectuals  as  the  representatives 
of  bourgeois  culture.     There  must  be  no  at- 


OF  SOVIET  RUSSIA  125 

tempts  by  special  propaganda  and  compromise 
to  conquer  the  prejudice  of  the^e  groups 
against  Communism.  The  proletarian,  anti- 
bourgeois,  character  of  our  struggle  and  of 
our  victory  must  be  emphasized  in  our  dealings 
with  them  also.  No  endeavors  must  be  made 
to  gain  a  "support"  that  later  on  must  prove 
unable  to  withstand  the  shock  of  reality.  Only 
those  individuals  can  be  of  real  use  who  pos- 
sess the  strength  to  break  in  act,  or  at  least  in 
spirit,  as  completely  as  possible  with  extant 
conditions.  Such  will  feel  the  remnants  of 
their  bourgeois  culture  as  a  hindrance,  and  will 
ask  for  a  modest  place  in  the  ranks,  and  in 
the  daily  struggle  will  divest  themselves  by 
and  by  of  their  ancient  impediments,  and  per- 
haps, someday  may  be  able  to  render  import- 
ant services  to  the  workers'  class.  But  the 
danger  of  reaction  exists  all  the  same,  and 
vigilance  is  always  required  on  the  part  of 
the  workers. 

The  best  among  the  intellectuals  certainly 
will  not  disapprove  of  such  vigilance,  but 
rather  applaud  it.  The  great  majority  of 
bourgeois  intellectuals  should  be  considered 
as  our  enemies  until  such  time  as  they  shall 


126  THE  NEW  POLICIES 

have  given  indubitable  proof  of  the  contrary. 
They  will  accomplish  their  part  in  the  strug- 
gle and  in  the  reconstruction  the  more  readily 
in  proportion  as  the  v^^orking-class  finds  in 
itself  the  more  energy  for  direction  and  con- 
trol. The  more  the  workers  show  a  determin- 
ation to  sacrifice  everything  rather  than  re- 
main dependent  upon  intellectual  leaders  and 
bureaucracy,  the  less  the  chances  of  a  return 
to  ancient  forms. 

The  dictatorship  of  the  proletariat  is  nec- 
essary for  the  transition  to  communistic  so- 
ciety. It  is  necessary  while  the  resources  of 
the  bourgeoisie  are,  as  yet,  unimpaired.  But 
among  these  resources  the  mental  weapons, 
the  culture  of  the  bourgeoisie,  are  the  most 
difficult  to  break.  Whilst  economic  and  so- 
cial reconstruction  is  dependent  upon  the  co- 
operation of  bourgeois  intellectuals,  the  work- 
ers cannot  do  without  weapons  of  their  own 
even  although  it  may  prove  possible  to  grad- 
ually soften  the  more  rigorous  forms  of  the 
dictatorship. 

The  duration  of  this  historical  period  can 
be  shortened  only  if  the  workers  resist  every 
compromise  with  bourgeois  culture,  and  op- 


OF  SOVIET  RUSSIA  127 

pose  as  strenuously  as  possible  all  forms  of 
bureaucracy.  For  it  is  not  impossible  that  the 
social  process  may  as  yet  be  interrupted  by 
new  periods  of  exploitation,  based  upon  a 
monopoly,  not  of  material,  but  of  mental  pos- 
sessions, of  direction  and  intellect,  in  the  form 
of  a  bureauracy  which  in  economic,  as  in  mil- 
itary organization,  had  achieved  a  position 
of  power,  which  again  necessitates  a  renewed 
and  severe  struggle  of  the  masses. 

The  expropriation  and  socialization  of  capi- 
tal, therefore,  is  insufficient,  unless  followed 
up  by  the  socialization  of  intellect  and  culture. 
The  former  is  the  condition  of  the  latter:  but 
this  too  can  be  brought  about  by  the  class- 
war  only,  and  the  sooner,  in  proportion  as  the 
difficulties  are  the  more  clearly  realized  from 
the  very  beginning. 

The  titanic  war  we  wage  is  one  and  in- 
divisible. It  is  against  monopoly,  all  mon- 
opoly, whether  monopoly  of  money  or  mon- 
opoly of  mind. 


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